


In the White Light

by TheTacticianAlchemist



Series: Twin Dragons [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Twins, F/M, Gen, Hoshido | Birthright Route, Invisible Kingdom | Revelation Route, Kamui/Azura is a bit more pronounced, Nohr | Conquest Route, Retelling, That's right all three routes are listed right here, Twin AU, as in not the entirety of all routes, long fic, mostly the fic will have elements of all three routes, while Corrin/Kaze is slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-06-01 08:52:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 27,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6511414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTacticianAlchemist/pseuds/TheTacticianAlchemist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are people. Three men and three women. As soon as she looks away from them, she forgets their faces, but she still senses them near, comforting and supportive but also yearning for her hand to guide them, and it scares her. </p><p>Someone’s fingers brush her own, and Corrin’s gaze catches sight of crimson red eyes.</p><p>[Twin Corrins AU, planned to be separated into three arcs. Main character: F!Corrin.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

The dream returns to her again, stronger than before. The handle of the sword in her hands is worn and cold. The sun beats down hot and almost blinding to the eye, something she’s rarely felt before.

There are people. Three men and three women. As soon as she looks away from them, she forgets their faces, but she still senses them near, comforting and supportive but also yearning for her hand to guide them, and it scares her.

Someone’s fingers brush her own, and Corrin’s gaze catches sight of crimson red eyes.

She blinks awake, the memory of the dream slowly fading. They called her _sister_ again, didn’t they…?

She rolls over and puts her hand over her forehead. She frowns at the unfamiliar ceiling for a moment before her limbs lock, memories flooding her mind.

The Bottomless Canyon. The Hoshidans, her siblings--Hans, and then what he did to Gunter--

Corrin bites her lip and clenches her fist in the sheets.

The treehouse is furnished with food and other supplies, so she takes the time to clean herself up. She’s careful to stay quiet, because Lilith is still asleep, curled up at the bottom of the bed. Corrin can’t stop staring at her friend. Her feelings toward the stable-hand--well, _former_ stable-hand--haven’t changed, but to think that she was all along a dragon…. It’s something that Corrin can just barely wrap her head around.

When she’s finally ready, Corrin can’t bring herself to stall any longer, thoughts of her siblings still swirling in her mind. She pats Lilith’s side, and a moment later, the creature stirs awake.

Lilith’s lips curl into a smile, but then it falls and she glances away, as if embarrassed. However, she floats up into the air and wags her tail. “Good morning, Lady Corrin.”

She smiles at her old friend. “Good morning, Lilith.”

Lilith pauses. “How are you feeling? I know this is a lot to take in.”

“Yes, it is,” Corrin says, the heaviness in her voice betraying just how much the past few days weigh on her since she gained the Ganglari. “But I feel much better now. My wounds seem to have healed already. And I have so many new questions about this world...though those of course will have to wait.”

The dragon smiles. “All in good time. But for now, I’ll take you back to the other world. We have to leave from the plaza, though.” With that, she leads her lady out of the treehouse.

“You’re right,” Corrin agrees as she descends the ladder. “I can’t relax until I know everyone’s all right.” _I trust my siblings to protect each other, though I’m worried… And what’s become of Jakob and...?_

She squeezes her eyes shut and tries to forget for the time being.

“Of course. But there is one thing you should know before you go back,” Lilith warns. “When I open the portal, we’ll return to the same location you came from, right on the Hoshidan border. There may be soldiers waiting there…. I’ll be with you, though I’m afraid I can’t do much even in this form.”

Corrin shakes her head. “That’s all right, Lilith. Do what you can to keep yourself safe. I’ll be ready for them.”

“Very well. Then I will open the gate.”

* * *

The sound of a crackling fire and the smell of something savory wakes Corrin. She blinks once again at an unfamiliar ceiling, and then bolts to sit up.

“Gah,” she hisses, grasping at her pounding head.

“Lady Corrin!” Lilith is there, her eyes wide. “Don’t move too much.”

Corrin grits her teeth and looks at their surroundings. They’re in a small shack, plain and devoid of color aside from the pot of food simmering in the hearth a few feet away. “Where are we?”

“A Hoshidan captured you.” Lilith shakes her head, distressed. “I couldn’t stop them, and I can only open the gate to the astral plane for others when I’ve rested. B-but I couldn’t run and leave you alone.”

Corrin smiles, albeit with slightly pale cheeks. “It’s not your fault, Lilith.”

The fish-like dragon just shakes her head and perches on Corrin’s shoulder to hide in her hair. In this world, she’s much smaller than she is in the astral plane. She seems so fragile.

A creaking sound catches their attention, and Corrin looks to see a muscular woman entering the shack from outside. It’s Rinkah, the prisoner from the Flame Tribe who Leo helped her set free.

“Good to see you’re still in one piece. Sorry about that bump on your head--it was too dark to see who you were. I would’ve treated it, but your guard... _fish_ kept me from getting too close.”

She sits on the other side of the hearth and grabs a bowl placed beside it, as well as two thin sticks. She uses the sticks to maneuver some of the food in the pan into her bowl, then starts to eat without even blowing on the steaming substance. She swallows, then gestures toward Corrin. “You can have some too, ya know.”

Corrin’s stomach feels like it’s eating itself. She only hesitates for a second due to the possibility of poison, but Rinkah’s still alive, so she takes a bowl and the sticks. Rinkah watches with a sly smile on her face as Corrin awkwardly tries to shovel the meat and noodles into her bowl, but doesn’t comment.

“Where are we?” Corrin asks, keeping hard eyes on the woman while she blows on her food.

“A Flame Tribe village within Hoshido’s territory. I’m going to hand you over to the Hoshidan authorities.”

Corrin busies herself with eating, trying to distract herself from the sudden chill tingling her spine. “I see,” she says at last. “I suppose they’ll want to hear an explanation for the unprovoked attack. And then they’ll probably execute me.”

“Heh.” Rinkah’s sly smile turns upward even more. “I don’t think so.”

Before Corrin can try to figure out what she means, a knock sounds at the door. Corrin freezes. “Gods… They’re here already, aren’t they?”

“Yes. It’s time to go. Eat that quickly.” Rinkah downs the rest of her food, then stands and grabs a traveling pack off the wall while Corrin attempts to eat with her awkward tools.

She gives up after she’s managed to eat all the meat from her share, then stands and slowly follows Rinkah outside. Corrin’s feet sink a little into the snow; if her feet weren’t so calloused and her body so warm, she would’ve immediately started to shiver.

A man garbed in green with a purple scarf is waiting for them. Corrin immediately recognizes him as the other prisoner her father wanted her to execute.

“We meet again,” Corrin says, standing straight and keeping her voice even. “Kaze, right?”

A soft smile graces his face, and his eyes flash with warmth. He instantly drops to one knee and bows his head. “Yes. I am glad we found you, Princess.”

Corrin frowns. “You are? ...Am I missing something?”

He still doesn’t meet her eyes, but his voice is still light, almost happy. “Please come with me. All will be explained when we reach Castle Shirasagi.”

She pauses. “Very well.”

* * *

The journey to the Hoshidan capital takes several days to complete on foot. Corrin and Lilith quickly realize that even if they were to escape to the astral plane, all that Rinkah and Kaze would have to do would be to wait them out. Lilith sets up an almost permanent residence on Corrin’s shoulder, resting during the day and keeping watch at night, lest her captors try to hurt her.

All the same, it’s quickly apparent that their two captors mean them no harm. Rinkah is a bit brazen and rough, but she’s kind. Kaze is the epitome of politeness, making sure to refer with deep respect to Corrin and ensuring that she gets enough food and plenty of rest and warmth when needed. His actions do nothing but puzzle her.

They’ve left the cold north and come into an area with the air of springtime. A large castle sprouts in the distance, but at that point Kaze murmurs apologies to everyone and blindfolds them all, even Lilith, before he leads them through what must be a secret passageway to Castle Shirasagi. It must be at least an hour before they reach their destination and he lets them see again.

However they’ve come to it, they stand in a garden covered with green moss and littered with trees just sprouting pink blossoms, the sight reflected by several calm pools of water. Corrin stands still, mesmerized by the sight and the scent coming on the breeze.

It all seems...familiar somehow.

Kaze watches her for a moment, then gently prompts her so that they can continue on. He leads them through pillar-like red gates, between stern Hoshidan guards, and then through the castle. The further they go, the more Corrin’s stomach churns. Her hands clench and unclench. She wishes Kaze weren’t carrying her sword.

It takes nearly ten minutes, but they finally reach the throne room. It’s long and spacious, a red and gold carpet lining the middle of the room all the way up to a white throne placed on a pedestal of stairs. On the stairs stands a man in red armor, a curved blade sheathed at his side and wild brown hair falling for feet down his back.

Corrin stops when Kaze comes in front of the man and bows on one knee. She stares at the man, wondering if he is to simply draw his blade and end her.

But the man is smiling.

“Ryoma-sama,” Kaze reports, revealing the man to be none other than the high prince of Hoshido. “I have returned with the princess.”

“Welcome back, Kaze,” Ryoma thanks, but he’s still looking at Corrin. “Good work.”

“Thank you, Lord Ryoma,” Kaze says, standing.

A moment passes, and Corrin looks away from the man. “What are you waiting for?” she asks, scowling. “If you’re going to execute me, please get on with it.”

“Lady Corrin,” Lilith hisses, but before she can say more, footsteps sound close by.

They’re the sound of someone running.

Ryoma’s kind expression turns into a frown as he sighs in exasperation. “I thought he didn’t know. I didn’t want to overwhelm her all at once.”

A bemused laugh escapes Kaze. “If you would excuse me saying so, milord, but Kamui-sama has never been one for following the plans of others.”

The sound becomes louder, and Corrin turns toward the doors of the throne room. One of them opens.

A young man hurries into the room toward them. He wears cream and gold-colored Hoshidan clothing, and his short, messy hair reflects the light. He is barefoot.

He stops just before her, standing up straight but panting for breath. He stands with his hands slightly outstretched at his sides, like he doesn’t know what to do with them.

“K-Kamiko?” he stammers.

His eyes are crimson red.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edit: image at the top of the chapter is newly put in; I commissioned azurmet on tumblr! Please go check out their work; they're fantastic.  
> In the future I may commission again/put in art done by others (with permission of course) during key scenes, we'll have to see.


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's not plausible to have a customizible avatar go through a name change from Hoshido to Nohr but goddamn it's my headcanon and I'm sticking to it

Corrin takes a step back, her wide eyes taking in the man’s features. A soft jaw, pale skin, delicate nose and red eyes--it’s as if she’s looking into a mirror bewitched to present the viewer as the opposite sex.

“Kamiko,” he says again, this time with more certainty. “You remember me, don’t you?”

He steps forward.

She steps back. “My name is Corrin.”

The man stops. “But…”

“Kamui,” Ryoma warns. “We didn’t want to overwhelm her. That’s precisely why we were going to wait to tell you she was here.”

Kamui’s eyes flash, and for a moment it sounds as if he’s growling like a beast when he turns to Ryoma. “Nii-san, don’t you think _I_ deserve the right to meet her as soon as possible? Kamiko is my twin!”

Corrin hears and her body runs cold. She shakes her head. “No.”

Ryoma and Kamui turn silent and stare at her. Ryoma simply frowns, but the younger brother’s eyes are glossy. He seems much smaller than he did a moment ago.

“No,” Corrin repeats. “Elise, Leo, Camilla, and Xander are my siblings. I’m Corrin, a princess of Nohr.”

“Are they the Nohrian royals?” Ryoma asks, but he moves on, not expecting an answer. “They have lied to you. You belong here, in Hoshido.”

Kamui smiles, though the corners of his lips can’t reach up very far. “You and I are twins. We were born here. Our other siblings are here too--not just Ryoma, but Takumi, Hinoka, and Sakura.” He reaches out tentatively. “I’m sorry if I scared you, but I’ve missed you so much, Ka… Corrin, if that makes you feel more at ease.”

Corrin just stands there, unwilling to believe but also unable to deny not just her similarity to this man, but also the faint stirring in her gut that whispers to her that maybe she’s wrong.

Before she can find something to say, Kaze stiffens and turns to bow on one knee. Rinkah is quick to follow his lead, also angling toward the doors. Ryoma and Kamui remain standing, bowing their heads toward the woman entering the throne room.

The woman wears a dress that is, like Kamui’s clothing, of gold and white. Her hair is straight, shiny and long, the brunette strands tied in a ponytail strung through a gold crown that rises at the back of her head like the sun coming up over the horizon. She has a soft jaw, pale skin, a delicate nose, and a mole beside her mouth.

She stops short just when Corrin can make out her brown eyes.

The woman’s mouth drops open. Her lips move, like she’s saying something reverently, and then she hurries to embrace Corrin.

“M-my sweet child,” she gasps. Her face presses into Corrin’s hair. “My Kamiko… I’ve missed you so much.”

Corrin struggles not to push against the woman, but her blood is starting to burn with confusion and frustration. “What are you talking about?!” she nearly spats. “That’s not possible!”

The woman immediately lets go, her eyes wet and her brows knitted together. “I’m your mother, Mikoto. Oh, my poor Kamiko, I’m sorry…” She shakes her head, as if ashamed with herself. “You must be so confused. I apologize.”

“My name is Corrin,” she repeats, and it feels like it’s all she’s said this whole time.

Mikoto is silent for a moment, glancing toward her sons. Ryoma nods, and Mikoto takes a breath. “Corrin… My sweet daughter. It’s a sad story. When you were very young, you were abducted by forces from Nohr. I didn’t know if I would ever see you again.”

Corrin shakes her head. “But King Garon is my father. None of what you’re saying makes sense.”

Kamui hesitates. “What about me?”

Corrin doesn’t answer.

Ryoma raises a hand toward his brother, a gentle urge to be quiet. “It must be quite a shock…” He pauses, like he was about to say her name, but thought better of it. “But I assure you, our mother speaks the truth. I am your older brother, Ryoma. Kamui is your twin. It’s been so long, but I still remember the day you were taken.

“In those days, there was tension between Hoshido and Nohr, but no full-blown war. Not until Garon lured King Sumeragi--our father--to Cheve under false pretenses. We all went, as a sign of peace, because Garon said he wanted to make a treaty. But his real plan was to murder our father in cold blood. And to make matters even worse...he kidnapped you.”

Corrin looks to the floor and puts a hand to her head. “That’s not…”

“You don’t remember any of this?” Kamui asks. “Not even a single memory?”

“I was deathly ill when I was a young child,” Corrin says, grimacing as a headache forms just behind her forehead. “I have only the vaguest memories from before that….”

Bits and pieces come to the forefront of her mind--a man, an outstretched hand, but nothing clear.

“There are times when I can sense something, like a word on the tip of my tongue,” Corrin admits. “Like a blurry image. Like looking through deep water. But that’s it. Nothing of substance.”

“Well, I can’t imagine the Nohrian royals would share much of your past with you,” Ryoma says, his voice underlined with a hint of contempt.

“I know this is a lot to take in,” Mikoto says, placing her hand on Corrin’s arm. “But please try to remember, if you can.”

Mikoto’s gaze attracts Corrin’s, and the girl can’t look away--there’s so much sadness and sincerity in the queen’s eyes that, even though this woman is essentially a stranger, Corrin feels guilty for being partly the cause of such pain.

“Milord!”

Without forewarning, a messenger runs into the room and bows before Ryoma. “Faceless are in the north.”

“No!” Kamui shakes his head, his hands forming into fists. “Hinoka and Sakura are in that area!”

“I have been told that they’re working to help evacuate the villagers,” the messenger says quickly. “But there are few soldiers in the area.”

“Very well. I’ll leave immediately,” Ryoma says. “Kaze! Rinkah! Please assist us. Kamui, and...Corrin, if you would join us.” His frown fades into a level line, but it is something akin to regret, and Corrin doesn't understand why. “I want you to see the truth with your own eyes.”

Corrin hesitates only a moment. “I’ll help,” she says, not because she can accept just yet that these people are her family, but because they’ll be going to a battlefield. A place she’s trained to be in, instead of with strangers.

* * *

The ride takes over an hour on horseback. Ryoma has his own steed, and though he sits tall, he doesn’t possess the same grace in the saddle that Xander does. Kaze and Rinkah follow on another horse, the ninja elegant while the warrior clutches onto the him while pretending not to be frazzled. Kamui steers the last horse, Corrin sitting in the saddle behind him. For the time being, Lilith has retreated back to the safety of the astral plane.

Corrin holds onto Kamui's clothes, careful not to touch him too much despite their proximity. She closes her eyes and thinks about when Elise was still learning to ride--Leo would take turns giving her and Corrin rides on the back of his mount, pretending like he was doing them a huge favor when he was secretly enjoying himself as well. How Xander taught her how to ride a horse, and Camilla _attempted_ to teach her to ride a wyvern. Horses were all right, but wyverns flew far too high off the ground for her liking.

“...to me? Corrin?”

She snaps her head up to find that Kamui is doing his best to glance back at her while still leading the horse along the path. “What is it?”

“We’ll be there in a few minutes, at last,” Kamui tells her. “Are you ready?”

Corrin nods and rests her hand on Ganglari. She still can’t quite believe they let her have it back--for this excursion, at the very least. “Yes.”

He nods. “Be careful. Faceless are ruthless and brutish. They’re soulless monsters that don’t have any morals when it comes to the battlefield.”

“All right,” she says, wondering what these creatures must look like. She’s interrupted mid-thought when Kamui lets out a chuckle.

She frowns. “What?”

He shakes his head, a helpless smile on his face. “I still can’t believe it…. When I was learning how to fight, I always imagined finding you and someday riding into battle beside you. The day has come, and words can’t express the joy I have with you here even if you haven’t accepted us yet, but I’m disgusted that I used to think battle was the only way. I long for the day when Faceless are no more and this war is over with.”

Corrin doesn’t know how to answer. She watches him as he turns his full attention back to the path ahead, his eyes narrowing in concentration.

His words remind her of herself, when she was a child and thought that it was her destiny to battle beside her siblings. Of course, she is still proud of her prowess, of the strength her brothers and sisters taught to her, and she would be proud still to fight beside them--but never has she _wanted_ war, especially after Garon ordered her to kill defenseless prisoners.

She wonders how alike she and her supposed twin actually are.

A few moments later, they enter a large area where the woods are sparser. A small village stands off to one side, but what attracts Corrin’s attention first are the inhuman roars coming from further in. She looks toward the trees.

Grotesque, burly monsters barely reminiscent of humanoids stagger around. They’re a sick, green color, with half-broken shackles on their ankles and wrists, and iron masks stuck to their heads. Their bodies are bloated and huge, but their limbs seem almost mismatched, as if they were sewn together from different sources.

Despite herself, Corrin grips Kamui’s clothing more tightly. “Are those Faceless?”

Kamui nods, following Ryoma’s lead and reining in his horse to a halt. “They’re clumsy, but strong. Be careful.”

With that, he dismounts, and Corrin follows close behind. Already, Ryoma is rushing off toward the nearest Faceless, brandishing a one-edged blade that crackles with lightning. Rinkah and Kaze take to the ground and look expectantly to Kamui.

“Right. Ryoma can handle himself, and it looks like he's taking the left side. We’ll take the right.” Kamui nods toward their destination, thick with monsters. “Corrin, stick close.”

“Understood,” she replies, falling easily into the situation despite this being her third real battle outside of training with her siblings. She takes Ganglari into her hand, and Kamui unsheathes his own blade, curved like his brother’s.

“Kaze, Rinkah, deliver the first hits, and we’ll follow right through,” Kamui commands, and without hesitation, the ninja flits away, nearly impossible to follow at first glance. He tosses throwing stars with near perfect accuracy, wounding and incapacitating the Faceless he hits. Rinkah follows through the horde, shouting nearly as loudly as the creatures as she swings her club. A few fall to her strength, but the few left standing are run through with slashes from Kamui and Corrin.

The two of them are nimble, easily ducking or jumping out of the way of the Faceless’ attacks. But whereas Kamui is more patient, guarding while waiting for the opportunity to move in and slash, Corrin is more rash, darting in to deliver a heavy blow before the enemy has a chance to throw a punch.

As the fallen Faceless dissolve into dust, Kamui grabs onto Corrin’s elbow. His eyes are wide, his words shaky. “Don’t be so reckless, please.”

He doesn’t leave her time to respond before he signals to Kaze and Rinkah, leading them further into the area, as if he weren’t so worried just a moment ago. Corrin shakes her head, then follows his lead, doing her best not to dwell.

Now, Corrin can make out people in the area. There are only a handful--Hoshidan sword-wielders and lance-fighters, and two women. One of the two is pink-haired, holding a staff; the other flame-haired, riding atop a white pegasus while skewering Faceless with a long spear.

Something hazy comes up in Corrin’s mind, but all she can make out is the color red.

The fighters are capable, especially the pegasus knight, but one man screams when a Faceless broadsides him with a punch. He crumples to the ground, and the pink-haired girl cries out and hurries to his side, her staff at the ready. The Faceless hovers over them, lifting its fists--but Corrin rushes up and lashes out with the Ganglari, slicing through the Faceless’s backside. The creature starts to fall forward, but before it can land, it disintegrates into ash.

The girl looks up, the injured man passed out in her arms. “Thank you so much,” she says, gratitude shining in her eyes--and then she freezes, her mouth dropping open.

Corrin struggles not to grimace, remembering how she and Kamui have such eerily similar faces. “Heal him up. We’ll go take care of the rest of them.”

She leaves without another word, fighting the urge to look over her shoulder to make sure the girl is all right. Her clear-headedness on the battlefield is already fading much too soon to give way to confusion. She shouldn’t have come.

The remaining Faceless fall quickly once Ryoma catches up to the main group hardly a few moments later. The last one expires at Kamui’s hand, and with the monsters gone, the woods seem far too quiet as everyone starts to regroup.

“I apologize.” Kaze is suddenly at Corrin’s side, and she nearly jumps out of her skin. He didn’t quite look sorry before, but now he dips his head with genuine concern. “I am under orders to keep you from your weapon in times of peace. Her Majesty does not mean to distrust you; rather, she would like to keep you safe during this adjustment period.”

Corrin frowns, but stiffly hands the Ganglari to him. Once again, she feels defenseless, almost naked without the extra protection.

“Corrin.” A hand falls on her shoulder, and she turns to find Kamui standing beside her. Kaze leaves without a gesture nor a sound.

A wide smile stretches across Kamui’s face, and his eyes are soft. “Are you ready to meet your sisters?”

She thinks of Elise and Camilla, and how worried they must be about her. “No,” she blurts.

Kamui blinks, for a moment not registering her words. Then, his expression falls. “I’m sorry.” He glances away. “Maybe you wouldn’t be so overwhelmed if I hadn’t rushed in like an idiot.”

Corrin doesn’t know what to say, but the sound of snow crunching under shoes catches her attention. She and Kamui turn to find the fiery-haired woman standing before them, her amber-red eyes wide.

Her voice is rough and throaty, like she’s spent a lot of her life crying or yelling. Despite that, emotion fills the name that falls from her lips: “Kamiko?”

“Corrin,” she corrects, unable to stop herself. The woman tenses, and she doesn’t know what else to add but: “It’s nice to properly meet you.”

The woman looks to Kamui, who nods. “Hinoka-nee-san, it is her. But--”

He can’t get another word in before Hinoka bursts into tears. Sobs tear from her throat, and she throws her arms around Corrin, pressing her face against her neck.

“K-Kamiko--Kamiko, I’ve m-mised you so much…! I’m sorry!”

Corrin stands there stiffly. Beside her, Kamui shifts, his mouth a thin line. Ryoma is watching from a few paces away, his arms crossed but a smile poking out from his armor.

A laugh escapes him. “Hinoka was so attached to you and Kamui when you were little, Ka-Corrin.” He coughs slightly, and his lips turn down. “When you were taken from us, she cried for months. One day she stopped crying and picked up the naginata. And I will say...if you ever find yourself facing the business end of her weapon, you will soon be filled with major regrets about your life decisions,” he finishes, another chuckle entering his voice.

“I-I vowed to bring you back someday. Heh, take that, Nohrian scumbags,” Hinoka says, sniffing, not seeming to notice the way Corrin tenses. She stands up fully and pulls away, a blush coloring her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Kamiko. I’m not usually this emotional.”

“Nee-san.” Kamui extends his hand a little to get Hinoka to pause her words. “She’s still...shaken by everything. Call her Corrin for the time being.”

Corrin glances at him, but his gaze is fixed on his older sister. Hinoka frowns.

“Corrin,” she says slowly, the syllables hard and awkward from her Hoshidan lips. She grimaces, her eyes still wet and red-rimmed when she looks back to Corrin. “I’m just so happy to have you back,” she says, grabbing Corrin’s hand and giving it a squeeze.

Corrin only nods. She still hears  _Nohrian scumbags_ echoing in my mind.

The pink-haired girl comes over to them, now finished with healing the man she was attending to. Her cheeks dust with a blush; her gaze is curious, but it can’t stay on Corrin’s face for too long before darting away. “S-so this is...Nee-san?” she stammers.

“Yes, Sakura.” Ryoma reaches out to pat his youngest sister’s hair. “I know it’s big news. I’ll fill you in on the whole story when we’re all back at the palace. For now we should return before Nohr deploys more monsters. Let’s head home.”

A grin covers Hinoka’s face as she hurries to talk to the men; their voices carry, and it seems like they’re members of the village they were evacuating. Sakura goes with her, presumably so they can take Hinoka’s pegasus together. Kaze signals to Rinkah, and the two go to collect the horses they rode in on.

Corrin lets out a breath, wondering how long she was holding it in for. Without Hinoka and Sakura there, her mind feels clearer, but not by much. “So,” she says, grasping for a topic she can actually work with. “What were those Faceless doing here? Are they common here?”

Ryoma shakes his head. “They’re created by Nohrian mages. They’re the only thing Nohr can throw at us right now, since Mother put up a magical barrier around the kingdom. Regular soldiers can cross the barrier, but they don’t have the will to fight upon coming into Hoshidan territory.”

“As long as the barrier is up, Nohr can’t invade Hoshido,” Kamui adds. “That’s why Nohr sends those...things. They have no souls--no will of their own--so they can move through the barrier and terrorize our border towns.”

Corrin frowns, a fiery grip clutching at her heart. “I know we’ve had tensions, but Nohr wouldn’t do something like this.” She thinks about Leo and his prowess for magic, how gentle and caring he is whenever he isn’t trying his hardest to be a pompous know-it-all. Her head is starting to pound, as if it's physically trying to reject the information her supposed siblings are giving her. “Nohr wouldn’t send monsters to terrorize innocent people…”

“Of course they would.” Hinoka is back, leading her pegasus by the reins, Sakura sitting in the saddle. A scowl mars the older sister’s face. “They’re pure evil. I’ve heard that sometimes the Faceless even turn on the mages who created them. Heh, serves them right. But the Nohrians don’t care. They’re willing to sacrifice their own just to hurt others. I’ll never forgive them for that, or for stealing you away. They’ll pay for all the suffering they’ve--”

“ _You’re wrong_!”

Hinoka stops.

Corrin’s limbs shake. Her hands ball into fists. She feels a searing heat all over her body. She can only see red, only what’s in front of her. She wants to scream and--

“Corrin, listen to me.”

She blinks, still shaking, but someone has taken her hands in theirs. She glances up, and it’s Kamui.

“It’s all okay right now,” he soothes. “No one’s fighting. It’s okay.”

He keeps whispering those words. At first, Corrin wants to lash out at him, to punch him in his goddamn face that looks too much like hers--but his thumb runs over her hand, distracting her. A gentle weight falls on her shoulder, and she blinks to find Lilith there, her gold eyes concerned.

Regular breathing slowly comes back to Corrin, and she becomes aware of herself again.

Kamui smiles. “Are you okay now?”

She nods, then notices how the other siblings are all staring at her. Sakura’s eyes are wide, her face pale; Hinoka frowns, her eyes concerned but her grip tight on the reins.

Corrin looks away. “I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right,” Ryoma says, and she can hear the relief in his voice. “We’re used to it. This used to happen to Kamui all the time.”

“D-did it?” She hates her voice for stuttering.

Kamui nods. “It did. I’ll teach you more about it, but for now I think we should go back and get some rest.”

He tugs a little, and she looks down to find that, as tightly as he’s been holding onto her, her knuckles are even whiter. She lets go of him immediately and wraps her arms around her middle.

She wants nothing more than to go to sleep, and then maybe wake up from this awful dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't say I'll ever have regular updates for this, sorry


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corrin meets Takumi and Azura.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think someone asked me how I was planning to include all the routes; mostly it's all going to just be elements/place locations, some story. Not everything is going to happen.

They arrange for Corrin to have a suite in the guest wing, and Kamui takes her there. The room is a soft golden color; Corrin thinks it must glow when the sunlight comes through the window just right, but for now, the only illumination comes from candles and moonlight. Instead of a bed, a large, plush area rests on the floor.

Corrin stops and stares at it. “What is that?”

“A futon,” Kamui explains. He claps his hands together. “Oh! Nohrians have beds, don’t they? That are lifted from the ground on legs like a table. I’ve seen those in Crykensia, I think!”

Corrin nods. “They’re really comfy.”

“Futons are comfy too, I assure you.” Kamui smiles.

A silence spreads between them. Corrin looks away, wrapping her arms around herself. She wants to be alone, but she doesn’t want him to leave so soon, as contradictory a thought as it is.

All the same, Kamui seems to realize what her quietness implies. “I’ll come by in the morning, then.  _ Oyasumi-- _ er, goodnight.”

He leaves the room; Corrin doesn’t look in his direction until after he’s closed the door behind him. She lets out a shaky breath.

“Lady Corrin.” Lilith floats from her position on Corrin’s shoulder and points out an odd section of the wall. “You should prepare for bed.”

The princess frowns at the wall, but then her eyes catch sight of a small notch in it. She tries to push and pull, and it’s only after a moment of thought that she tries sliding it to the right. The door disappears into the wall, revealing a spacious bathroom coupled with a closet.

Corrin cleans the stink and grime off of herself, wondering how her supposed mother and elder sister could have stood her filthiness when they hugged her. She washes and brushes out her hair, then dries herself off and tries to figure out what in the closet passes for pajamas.

She crawls into the futon while wearing a light brown robe that ties at the waist. It feels too large, and the sleeping mat is plush, but she feels vulnerable sleeping on the floor.

Lilith settles onto the mattress beside Corrin, but she keeps her head up. “I’ll watch over you while you sleep.”

An almost embarrassing amount of relief spreads through Corrin’s body, but she’s too tired to care. “Thank you, Lilith.”

“Would you like to go to the astral plane to sleep?”

“I would only cause a panic if they found I wasn’t here.” Corrin shifts, trying to get more comfortable. “...I can still feel the floor through this thing,” she mumbles, but her eyes are already drifting closed.

* * *

As promised, Kamui comes back in the morning.

“ _ Ohayou.  _ Did you sleep well?” he asks, smiling softly as he comes in the room.

Corrin is sitting on the futon, already dressed. “I woke up when the sun rose,” she says, glancing out the window. She thinks of the usually dark Nohrian skies, and how long it usually took Flora and Felicia to rouse her from sleep. “I guess I’m not used to all the light in the morning.”

“I see. Well,” he says after a moment. “I asked for breakfast to be brought here. You’re probably hungry.”

She nods. She glances back at him; a jolt still stirs her stomach at the sight of his face, almost exactly like her own. She doesn’t know if she’ll ever become used to the sight. “So… What are we doing today?”

“Today,  Haha-ue  wants to spend time with you in the morning. Later, you’ll get to meet Takumi, and Azura,” Kamui says. He leans against the wall. “Takumi… Well, please understand that Takumi is always really prickly toward people he doesn’t know well, or Nohrians…”

Corrin interrupts before he can continue. “What, do you have a lot of Nohrians crossing the barrier like me?” It comes out harsher than she intends it to.

“Well, Azura is Nohrian. Takumi used to be more friendly toward her when we were all kids, but lately he’s...been avoiding her.”

“So, Azura isn’t our...a sibling?”

Kamui shakes his head. “ She was brought here when she was a child.”

Corrin opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. Then she says: “So, like me?”

“Like you. But I think I’ll let her explain that to you. You’ll like talking with her; she’s really nice.” When Kamui says that, a small smile tugs at his lips, and his gaze turns toward empty air like he’s looking at something else entirely.

A knock sounds at the door; Kamui opens it to find a servant there, carrying a tray of food. He comes in and places it on the table. When he’s done, he bows and leaves the room.

“Looks like they made enough for the both of us.” When he notices Corrin just stare at the food, he frowns. "Is there something wrong?"

"Shouldn't... Shouldn't he have checked for poison?" she asks.

Kamui blinks. "Poison?"

She hesitantly stands. "Gunter--I mean, my retainers always checked my food for poison before I ate."

"There's no reason for there to be poison in our food, but here." Kamui uses the stick-utensils to take a little bit from each item on the tray and eats. In between bites, he explains: "Only Ryoma-nii-san and Haha-ue have their food checked like this, usually. It's not a big concern here."

Corrin frowns, but decides not to comment and sits down in the chair. “You can have some if you want,” she says quietly.

“Thank you,” he says, sitting across from her. He claps his hands together. “ _ Itadakimasu _ .”

He catches her stare. “What?”

“What did you say?” she asks, awkwardly picking up the stick-utensils that came with the meal.

Kamui repeats the word. “It’s a prayer to thank the gods for the food,” he explains. He watches her for a moment, then laughs. “You don’t hold your chopsticks like you’re trying to whack someone.”

He reaches over and adjusts her grip on the chopsticks, then instructs her on how to make pincer-like movements with the ends of the utensils. It takes embarrassingly long to get that down, and even then, Corrin ends up dropping half of her rice back into her bowl.

“Don’t you have any forks?” she snaps when the chopsticks slip out of her hand.

“Forks?” Kamui echoes, then hides a snort behind his hand when Corrin gives up and raises the bowl of rice and meat to her lips.

Kamui is only half-finished with his own food when she stops eating. He frowns at the half-eaten food in her bowl, but Corrin just looks away.

A few moments pass.

“...Are you upset?” he asks quietly.

She bites her lip, hoping her watery eyes won’t spill any tears. “Why do you ask?”

He puts his chopsticks down. “Your moods keep changing.” He pauses. “It’s okay to be upset.”

Corrin raises a hand to her aching temple. “I-I’m sorry…”

“No, no. None of this is your fault.”

She shakes her head. “I can’t remember anything. And I-I never knew about Faceless… But I also can’t--I can’t just think of Xander and the others as  _ not _ being my siblings….”

Kamui pushes the tray aside so he can lean over the table and take her hand. “We’re not asking you to drop everything you’ve ever known so quickly. We can wait. We’re just glad you made your way back to us.”

Corrin sniffs. The tears have started to fall. “I don’t know what came over me earlier… Hinoka was just--just  _ insulting _ Leo, and I…” 

“You don’t know…? Corrin, have you ever transformed?”

“Transformed?” She blinks. For a moment, she doesn’t understand what he means, and then a memory rushes to the forefront of her mind. “A-at the border, when Hans killed Gunter--my retainer. I was so angry… I think something happened to my arm…”

A laugh escapes Kamui. At her frown, he hurriedly explains: “I assumed you knew, that you just didn’t know how to control your blood. The two of us can shapeshift into dragons.”

She stares blankly at him. “What?”

“All of the royal siblings have power through our dragon blood, but you and I--our blood is special.” He’s grinning now, like an excited child. “We can transform into dragons--like the ancient ones. I can teach you how to transform, and how to stay in control, how to fight and climb--you’ll be so great at it.”

“Are you serious?” she asks, almost deadpan, but she has no reason to distrust him other than the fact that she’s only known him for a day. After all, how can she explain what happened to her on the bridge above the Bottomless Canyon?

He nods vehemently. “I can show you--but not the whole transformation. I don’t know if I’d fit well into the room.”

Kamui stands, moving away from the table to have adequate space. He stands still. Something underneath his clothes glows a soft blue, and for the first time, Corrin notices a chain around his neck that disappears under his collar.

He frowns with concentration, and then his face grows round. White and navy colors overtake his features, leaving his face completely unrecognizable as human, and elegant dark and ivory-colored horns extend upwards around his face. His eyes and mouth don’t seem to be there.

A moment later, the features melt away, leaving Kamui as a normal human--the only thing giving away his dragon blood being his crimson eyes and pointed ears.

“Did you think it was cool?” he asks, his face bright. 

Corrin shakes her head. She stands. “How did you…?”

Kamui pulls a pendant out front underneath his clothes. A semi-clear blue crystal hangs from the chain. “This is called a dragonstone. Azura gave it to me. She can probably get one for you, too. It makes it easier for me to transform, and to transform without…well, losing my mind. But don’t worry,” he adds quickly. “When we train, you’ll be fine.”

Corrin frowns, then comes up to Kamui. She looks to him for permission, and when he nods, she hesitantly takes the dragonstone into her palm. It pulses with a cool energy, like a current of water. Something in her blood stirs at the contact, and she immediately lets go.

He gives her a reassuring smile. “You’ll get used to it when you get your own. I don’t ever take this off.”

She nods. Words don’t come to her, and she stares at the dragonstone for another moment.

“Well,” Kamui says. “Would you like to go see  Haha-ue now?”

She pauses. “Hinoka?”

He snorts. “No, I mean Mother.”

Corrin bites her lip. “I… I would like to meet Azura, first.”

“...Oh.” Kamui’s expression falls a little, just for a second. “Well, I’m sure  Haha-ue will understand.”

* * *

Kamui takes her through the castle, down an incredible amount of stairs. Corrin can’t make sense of how he can make his way through the golden hallways without getting lost.

“Where are we going?” she asks, hurrying to keep up with him. Her legs are slightly shorter than his, and she keeps unintentionally slowing down to look at their surroundings.

“Azura spends most of her time outdoors. She’ll disappear for hours at a time,” Kamui explains, nodding to stone-faced guards as they pass by through the entrance corridor and emerge into the open air. “She likes to be alone, as nice as she is.”

“...Will it be okay if we just go up to her, then?” 

Kamui chuckles. “Sometimes that’s the only way to get her when you need her. But don’t worry--I talked to her yesterday, and she’s looking forward to meeting you. Ah, this way,” he says, tapping her shoulder and leading her around the outside of the castle. “She’s usually at the lake in the woods behind the training grounds.” 

The training grounds are mostly clear and level, fit for sparring, but there are a few spots dotted with training dummies. A few people are out training or sparring (“That’s Saizo over there, and there are Hinata and Oboro”), and at the far end of the area is an archery range. A lone individual is shooting arrows at a target.

Kamui puts his hand on Corrin’s shoulder as they walk. “That person there is Takumi, our younger brother.”

As if he had heard his name being spoken even from such a distance, Takumi lowers his bow slightly and turns his head, his long, ashy ponytail swaying with the movement. 

“Takumi is really nice, but it’s hard for him to warm up to people,” Kamui murmurs as Takumi, still holding onto his bow, heads over to them.

The boy’s body is stiff, and he frowns as he stops before them. Still, his eyes widen a little as his gaze jerks back and forth between Corrin and Kamui, and he seems uncertain for a moment. Then, he puts his free hand on his hip, and his former expression returns.

“Corrin, then.” He doesn’t even dip his head in greeting.

Corrin would be elated at his using her preferred name if it weren’t for how confused she is about his attitude. She nods. “Yes. Um… Takumi, right?”

He scowls. “You haven’t earned the right to call me by name.”

“Hey.” Kamui straightens up, a frown on his face. “This is your sister.”

Takumi glances at his older brother, then quickly looks away. “This is Corrin of Nohr,” he says, almost grumbling. “I don’t see any sister of mine.”

“Takumi--”

“Kamui-nii-san,” the archer interrupts, his voice rough. “She was raised in Nohr, not here.” He glares at Corrin. “I don’t trust you.”

Corrin doesn’t know what to say for a moment. “That’s...fair enough,” she relents. “I understand.”

Takumi takes a step back. “What?!” He shakes his head. “What do you mean?”

She grimaces, his tone finally hitting a nerve. “Don’t get me wrong. I can’t trust you either. I can’t tell if you’re my real family or not.”

Takumi blinks, and then a harsh laugh escapes him. “Oh, that’s rich,” he says between breaths, his voice heavy with derision. “You can’t trust  _ us _ , you can’t believe  _ us _ , when the proof is literally staring you in the face.” He waves his arm at Kamui, then shakes his head. “Maybe you were Kamiko at some point, but those Nohrian scumbags killed her a long time ago.”

He turns to leave, but Kamui snatches his wrist. “Apologize, now.”

Takumi wrenches himself out of his brother’s grip. “Leave me alone,” he snaps, then stomps back to the archery.

Kamui swears under his breath, then shakes his head as if to rid himself of the situation. “That was worse than what I’d hoped,” he muttered. He moves his hand toward Corrin, but then hesitates and pulls it back. “Come on. Let’s keep going.”

Corrin glances at his hand, then his face, so much like hers.

She looks away, but follows him all the same.

It takes a few more minutes of walking to reach their destination. The training grounds give way to wild-growing grassland bordered by woods, and at one point, the sandy banks of a small lake.

Corrin is still stewing over the argument, her thoughts clouded and her attention distracted. Kamui taps her arm, and she opens her mouth to speak, but he puts his finger over his lips to shush her.

That’s when she hears it.

The singing is somehow soft but powerful at once, travelling on the breeze to her ears. It fills her mind, her heart, and she feels lighter.

_ You are the ocean’s grey waves, _

_ Destined to seek life beyond the shore _

_ Just out of reach… _

_ Yet the waters ever change, _

_ Flowing like time, _

_ The path is yours to climb... _

The voice trails off into silence, a moment almost as beautiful and poignant as the song itself. Corrin opens her eyes, not realizing in the first place that she closed them, and she sees a figure standing on a wooden dock leading out into the lake.

The figure is a woman wearing a white dress with blue ribbons. Her long, water-blue tresses nearly touch the ground, and her head is adorned with a white, blue and gold headdress. She turns, revealing the pendant around her neck and the deep gold of her eyes. 

She is stunningly beautiful.

Kamui leads Corrin onto the sand, and the woman joins them, her bare feet sinking a little into the beach. Kamui nods to Corrin, and his body is relaxed, his expression a bit hopeful, like just the woman’s presence is enough to make him forget every troublesome detail in the world altogether. “Corrin,” he says. “This is Azura.”

Corrin dips her head, suddenly shy. “That was a beautiful song.”

“Thank you, Corrin.” Azura smiles, her eyes seeming to glow in the light. “I’ve always wanted to meet you. I’m sure Kamui must have told you about me. For nearly as long as you’ve been in Nohr, I’ve lived here in Hoshido.”

Corrin nods. “I’ve heard that. Though...might I ask why you came here? Did you move here with your family?”

Azura pauses, a slight frown on her face. She looks at Kamui, but he just shakes his head slightly.

“I was former Nohr royalty,” Azura explains. “After you were taken by the Nohrians, the Hoshidan forces retaliated. They tried desperately to get you back, but they failed again and again. I wasn’t as heavily guarded. Hoshido hoped that Garon would barter to trade the two of us back to where we came from, but he never cared. I suppose we’ve both been hostages for most of our lives.”

Corrin stiffens, her gaze shifting back and forth between Azura and Kamui. Her hands curl into fists. “You mean to tell me that Hoshido has been doing the very same thing to Azura,” she says to Kamui, her every word nearly punctuated, “that you claim to have been despairing happened to me?”

“Of course not!” Kamui shakes his head vehemently. “We have never tried to  _ imprison _ Azura!”

“It’s okay.” Azura reaches out to still Kamui, then takes Corrin’s hand. The woman’s fingers are cool, like water. “I chose my words poorly there. I may technically be a hostage, but I’ve lived a happy life. The people of Hoshido have accepted me as one of their own, even knowing my background. Even Queen Mikoto herself treats me as if I were her daughter.”

The memory of Mikoto crying and clutching to her comes to the forefront of Corrin’s mind, and she frowns. “...Does she?”

Kamui nods. “ Haha-ue loves all of us.”

“She is as kind to me as my own mother was,” Azura adds.

Corrin wraps her arms around her middle. “...I’m sorry. I just don’t know what to think right now.”

Azura hesitates, then turns to Kamui. “Would you mind if I talked with Corrin alone?”

“Go right ahead,” he says, taking a step back. “I’ll go wait over by the training grounds. Come find me whenever.”

He turns and leaves, leaving the two of them alone. Azura gives Corrin another soft smile. “Why don’t we go sit on the dock?”

They walk slowly along the dock, their feet padding against the wood and making small echoes as the sound hits off the water underneath. Azura sits on the end and dangle her legs into the lake, the water reaching to her ankle. She pats the spot beside her, and Corrin sits, her legs crossed.

“You should put your feet in,” Azura suggests. “It feels lovely on a warm day like today.”

Corrin frowns, but it slowly gives way to a small smile as she starts to remove her leg armor. “I don’t quite understand how there can be snow only a few hours north of here, and yet we’re warm.”

Azura giggles, a sound that reminds Corirn of bubbling water. “Weren’t you taught geography?”

“Of course I was.” She hesitates only a moment before pulling off her tights. She dips her legs into the cool lake; because her legs are longer than Azura’s, the water reaches up to her mid-calf. “But I never had the opportunity to leave the Northern Fortress until recently, and there’s a difference between learning about something and actually experiencing it.”

Azura nods. She glances toward Corrin’s feet, shimmering beneath the surface. “Doesn’t it feel nice?”

She sways one foot slowly. “I’ve always liked the water, but the most I’d actually seen was the fountain in the courtyard. This…” It feels natural, like she belongs in it, but she can’t find the right words to express the thought. 

“I understand,” Azura says. “I feel the same way.”

They sit silently for a few moments, letting the sun warm their skin and the water cool their feet.

“She...she seems perfectly lovely, but I don’t feel any connection to her.”

Azura looks over at her.

“M-my mother, I mean,” Corrin mumbles. “...The only real mother figure I’ve ever had is my sister, Camilla. I miss her terribly.” A small chuckle escapes her. “She’d probably say something about you all trying to trick me, and to come home at once. I… I don’t know whether I’d believe her or not, right now.”

“It’s all right.” Azura nods. “Take your time to think things through. You have the time to decide what you want to do.”

Corrin wipes at her eye. “Will I get a choice, though? To go home?”

“I’d like to think you will,” Azura says. “When it seemed that I wasn’t going to be able to be used to bring you back here, Queen Mikoto said that I was free to return to Nohr if I wished. But I have no desire to return to that place.”

Corrin sniffs. “You...you don’t?”

“No.” She songstress shakes her head. “Queen Mikoto is a peaceful ruler. King Garon is not.”

“But… He has to be forceful.” Corrin frowns. “Of course I don’t like senseless war. I don’t want a war between Hoshido and Nohr. But Nohr...doesn’t have much in agriculture. It’s hard to remain peaceful when food is scarce.”

“That is true.” Azura swirls her foot in the water, making ripples on the surface.

Silence stretches between them once more, but it isn’t heavy. Corrin looks down at her lap.

“I...I am sorry for burdening you with my thoughts,” she murmurs. “I’ve only just met you.”

“No need to apologize.” Her laughter is like small bubbles rising to the surface of water. “I have only just met you, and already I quite enjoy your company. We are rather alike, don’t you think?”

“I think so,” Corrin agrees.


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corrin comes to terms with certain facts, and decides upon a plan of action.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Japanese in this chapter is all written in hiragana; all the names in-game are written in katakana (probably a stylistic choice + it avoids misreading kanji), but to express how a child learns/writes, using hiragana is the best option.
> 
> Here are the readings:
> 
> otousama to okaasama to kamuiniisan to watashi = Father and Mother and Kamui-nii-san and me
> 
> ichiban suki otouto = (my) favorite little brother

Corrin walks beside Kamui as they head indoors, her head bowed toward the ground. Azura decided to remain outside, claiming to not want to interfere on the two of them spending time with Mikoto. Without the singer’s quiet but comforting presence beside her, Corrin can feel her body stiffen back up.

“Are you nervous?” Kamui asks as he leads her through the polished hallways of the castle.

She looks away. “...A little.” She pauses. “What was it you called her earlier?”

“What? Oh, _Haha-ue_?”

“Yes, that.” Corrin shakes her head. “The words you use are all so...different.”

Kamui laughs. “We generally speak and write in the Common, but old Hoshidan is essential for us to know. Some outlying territories only speak in that tongue, anyhow; how else could we communicate with them?”

“I think Nohr has similar places, but I’ve never been to them,” Corrin murmurs. “Though I’ve never heard anyone speak old Nohrian except when my retainers and siblings were trying to teach it to me.”

Kamui doesn’t speak for a moment, prompting Corrin to look up at him. His smile has faded, leaving her confused, but then his expression lifts into an excited grin. “I can help you learn Hoshidan! We all can; Sakura especially is good at it, even if she’s a little shy.”

Corrin balks, but hurriedly tries to brush it off. “T-that sounds like it would be fun,” she lies, far more nervous about spending time with these people she’s never known rather than learning an unknown language.

If Kamui notices her wobbling voice, he doesn’t indicate it. Instead, he stops, his attention caught, and he says: “Kaze! What is it?”

Corrin doesn’t notice the ninja until that moment. Out of nowhere, it seems, he’s appeared in the hallway right in front of them. She jumps a little, and Kaze’s eyes widen.

“I apologize for startling you, Corrin-sama,” he says, bowing.

She waves her hands. “N-no, don’t worry about it.”

Kamui laughs. “You’ll get used to it. The ninja all come out of nowhere.”

Kaze glances at Corrin again, then addresses the both of them. “Mikoto-sama is waiting for you in the residential quarters. I took the liberty of informing her as to your whereabouts earlier.”

“Ah. Thank you, Kaze.” Kamui puts his hand on Corrin’s shoulder. “We should get going, then.”

Corrin bites her lip, but she can’t find any words to say to beg him to go anywhere else.

* * *

 

The residential quarters are a whole floor dedicated to be the private rooms of the royal family. The large common area decorated with plush couches and flat-colored, painted screens on the walls connects the hallways that lead to each member’s own room. Guards are posted outside the doors before the stairs, but only the royal family and their retainers and servants are allowed inside.

Mikoto stands from one of the couches when Corrin and Kamui enter, her brown eyes alight. “You’ve come.”

The woman’s expression unnerves Corrin. Her gaze drops away as she replies: “...You wanted to see me?”

Mikoto’s smile falls a little at the sight of her expression. “Why, yes. I wanted to show you yours and Kamui’s old room.”

“Would you like me to leave?” Kamui asks quietly, directing the question to Corrin.

She shakes her head at once.

Mikoto looks between them, her uncertain expression blossoming into a smile. “All right, then. This way.”

She leads them down one of the hallways. Corrin has become a bit more adept at discerning the sliding doors from the walls; Mikoto stops at one of the two. Kamui nods toward the other one and says: “That’s mine.”

Mikoto opens the door into the room, then coughs as some dust floats into the hallway. She leads the way into the dark and musty room, heading over to the curtains to open them. The light illuminates a dresser, a large Hoshidan toy that appears to be made to sit on almost like a rocking horse, and an old futon with two pillows. In one corner of the room, scattered on the floor, are yellowing drawings, clearly done by children with unskilled hands.

“...Is this all…?” Corrin trails off, a bit unsure herself of what she’s trying to say.

Mikoto nods. “We couldn’t bear to touch a thing in this room after you were taken. If we put your things away, it would have felt like we were giving up. So, we put Kamui in the other room and...well, now you’ve grown up. I can’t believe how beautiful you are!”

Corrin doesn’t respond to her--the words make her even more uncomfortable. Instead, she moves to look at the scattered drawings on the floor. Some are labeled in chicken-scratch handwriting: One, with a man with long hair like Ryoma’s standing next to a woman and two children, is printed with おとうさまと おかあさまと かむいにいさんと わたし; another is of a little boy with silvery hair, next to the characters いちばん すき おとうと; the last one is the only one she can read--it says _dumb nii-san_ and features a boy with brown hair, a pointy frown, and matching eyebrows.

Mikoto chuckles, causing Corrin to jump a little--she didn’t notice the woman come up beside her. “You were quite the little artist. That’s me, your father, Kamui, and you--and that’s Takumi, and that’s Ryoma. Ryoma was sometimes too busy to play with you, so perhaps that’s why you were upset with him.”

She says all this with a wistful smile on her lips. Corrin shifts her weight. “...Some of these could be Kamui’s.”

“You have a point,” he agrees, coming up beside her. He gives her a smile, but she can’t return it. His brows pull together.

“That is true.” Mikoto hides a laugh behind her hand. “You two were nearly inseparable. Whenever Orochi would watch you, she’d always have the wildest stories to share afterward.

“This is definitely yours,” Mikoto continues, reaching down to pick up the picture of the boy with silvery hair. “Whenever you could, you were playing with Takumi. Very nicely, too, since he was smaller. He was a bit delicate when he was that young.”

“Takumi?” Corrin blurts incredulously.

Kamui laughs. “He adored you.”

Corrin shakes her head. “I… I can’t even imagine that.” Takumi, the archer with ashen hair and eyes blazing with hatred and distrust? The idea of him being small and apparently lovable like Mikoto and Kamui suggested was inconceivable.

“You were all quite close.” Mikoto’s smile fades, and her gaze lowers. “Things were never the same after you and Sumeragi were taken from us.”

Her words strike painfully against Corrin. She turns and walks out of the room, a hand over her mouth. Her stomach churns.

“Corrin?” Kamui hurries after her, catching up to her in the hallway. “What’s wrong?”

She turns away from him and shakes her head, too afraid that when she opens her mouth to speak, she’ll vomit instead. Everything is spinning around her, and she feels like a single step could send her crashing to the ground.

“Are you sick?” Kamui puts his hands on her shoulders. “I’ll take you to a bathroom… Haha-ue! I think she’s sick.”

“I’ll have Reina fetch a medic.” Mikoto passes them, casting a worried gaze toward Corrin. Another bout of nausea wracks Corrin, and she gags. 

Kamui leads her, stumbling, into another room, and then a bathroom; she falls to her knees and vomits into the chamberpot. Although there isn’t much in her stomach, her body trembles, and then she hacks out nothing but spittle.

Kamui holds her hair with one hand and rubs her back with the other. “It’s okay, it’s okay…. Corrin?”

Fat, salty tears stream down her cheeks; some fall onto her lips and add to the foul taste in her mouth. “Oh, gods,” she sobs. Her whole body shakes. “Oh, gods.”

“Corrin.” He keeps rubbing her back in circles. “Just breathe. It’s okay.”

She presses her palms against her closed eyes, trying to hide in the darkness. “I-it’s true, isn’t it?” she blabbers. “Oh, gods. Y-you’re all--you’re all--”

Tinges of red appear in her vision. Her whole body shakes. She weeps, and then everything becomes hazy.

* * *

 

She isn’t really aware of herself until what must be a few hours later, because the light coming from the window is tinged silver from the rising moon. Corrin rouses from a near trance-like state, finding herself on the futon in her guest quarters.

She doesn’t remember how she got there.

She rubs at her eyes and sits up, the covers falling a little from her form. She’s still in her lightweight armor. Lilith shifts beside her on the futon, but curls up more tightly around her golden ball and continues to sleep. Corrin wonders if the little dragon nodded off, as an unspoken agreement had come between them that they would sleep in shifts--Lilith during the day, and Corrin at night.

Corrin lets her be and goes to the bathroom. Vague memories pop into her mind when she realizes her lips tastes foul, and she rinses out her mouth in the sink. She washes her face to wake herself up, then wanders back into the main suite and catches sight of items on the table: One is--yet another--bowl of rice with some meat and vegetables, the second a book, and the last is a note.

_Corrin,  
_

_I didn’t want to disturb you again by any of us being there when you woke up, but I’ll be by in the morning to check on you. I had food brought in if you were hungry, and I grabbed some books written in the Common if you wake up and can’t sleep.  
_

_You were really out of it, and nearly transformed completely into a dragon. If it weren’t for Haha-ue and one of her festals, well, be glad she was able to put you to sleep. Transforming straight into a dragon isn’t the way to go about starting using your power, believe me.  
_

_Mother says you’re perfectly able to walk about the castle and the grounds outside (not if it's night, mind you). You’ll be safe. But I still ask you to be careful.  
_

_Kamui_

Corrin frowns, the information a bit slow to process in her mind. Hazy images come back to her, and she shudders, the memory of red in her vision unsettling her stomach again. She doesn’t even consider the food, nor the book, and instead sits for a moment, her hand on her temple.

“They’re my birth family,” she whispers to the darkness, because there is no more denying that fact. 

A moment turns into more, and she isn’t sure how long she stays in the chair for as slow thoughts turn over in her mind. Memories of Nohr and her--her adopted siblings, because she can’t think of them as anything but her family. New experiences with these siblings that she doesn’t remember, a mother she doesn’t know. A castle full of people she doesn’t know, yet who all believe they know her so well.

Azura and Kamui.

Corrin’s body relaxes for just a few heartbeats, but a lingering doubt hangs heavy over her head. She stands and carefully picks Lilith up into her arms.

Lilith stirs, looking up at her with glassy eyes. “Lady Corrin…?”

“Shh,” she murmurs, and then walks to the door.

The hallway is silent, lit only by candles and moonlight that doesn’t even angle in from the direction of the windows at this hour. She doesn’t see any guards, but that doesn’t mean anything. Nevertheless, she turns to the left and starts walking.

She doesn’t know where she’s going--the castle is a maze to her during the daylight hours, and in the night, a labyrinth--though her major concern is in heading down the staircases. There are steps upon steps, one after the other, and Corrin silently, heedlessly plods on.

“...Corrin-sama?”

She halts, stiffening. She turns her head.

Kaze walks out of the shadows, the moonlight and candles barely illuminating the edge of his silhouette; if she hadn’t once fought him, spent two days on a journey with him, and battled beside him, she wouldn’t have recognized him even by his voice. 

He eyes her. “Might I ask where you’re going?”

No answer leaves her lips. Instead, she hugs Lilith closer to her chest and stands up straighter, doing her best to meet Kaze’s gaze in the darkness.

He waits another moment before saying: “I must say, I do not think anyone would get very far in a country they don’t know without a weapon, or currency for that matter.”

She imagines the walls of the Northern Fortress, how sometimes she would sneak out of her room at night only to be caught by one of her retainers. She doesn’t want to feel like an ignorant, scared child anymore.

Her jaw tightens. “Am I a prisoner here?”

His eyes widen, his purple irises caught by the candlelight, and she knows he’s remembering the time they met in Castle Krakenburg--when she refused to kill him and Rinkah in front of her father, and her and her siblings’ roles in helping them escape.

He looks away for a moment, as if ashamed. When he turns back to her, his head is bowed slightly. “I… I apologize, Corrin-sama, but your safety is my highest priority. I must advise against leaving the premises.”

Corrin’s lips turn downward. She says nothing.

Kaze doesn’t try to meet her gaze. “...Shall I take you back to your quarters?”

Corrin doesn’t reply. He lightly places his fingertips upon her elbow and leads her, a prisoner in all but name, back.

* * *

 

Lilith paws at her golden ball, her nails making a slight clacking sound. Her tail twitches back and forth. “Lady Corrin...surely you’re being a bit hasty? These people may be strangers to you now, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t truly become part of your family.”

Corrin rests against the windowsill, her chin on her arms as she stares outside as the morning sun gives light and color to the grass and trees and sky. “...I won’t deny your words, Lilith. I don’t bear these...this family any ill will on part of my heritage. 

“I…” Corrin’s hand tightens into a fist. “ _I’m so tired of being locked away._ I want to go home, to the people I know… Even if they’re not my birth family.”

“You can get to know the people here,” Lilith insists, coming closer, but hesitantly. “Like Lord Kamui...he seems to care about you a great deal. As do the rest of them, I’m sure.”

Corrin pulls back from the window and turns her gaze toward Lilith. “I know the people here are good--and bad, too. Just like in Nohr...everyone is capable of both. I… The war looming over us is not one I want to fight--not one I want anyone to fight. Nohr is terrorizing Hoshido, but there is no sympathy for any Nohrian from a Hoshidan, be that me, Azura, or some poor woman or child.

“I want to go _home_ , Lilith. Under other circumstances, I might stay here for a short time, to--to see if--but it’s not that simple." She shakes her head. "I can at least try to make sense of things with the help of my siblings and retainers in Nohr.”

Lilith stays silent, staring with sad eyes at her lady.

Corrin is about to turn away, but a knock at the door, catches her attention. She stands, and Lilith moves to her side, if a bit behind her.

When Corrin calls out an okay, the door opens, and Kamui peers inside. He is slightly crouched, his red eyes hesitant. “You look like you’re feeling better,” he says softly.

She nods, bobbing her head. The action is reminiscent of her time with her siblings and retainers, but at the same time, so alien because of how long it’s been since she was ignorant. “I was actually waiting for you.”

“Oh?” He comes further into the room, standing up straighter, his eyes lighting up like a child’s at the sound of her excitement. “What for?”

She grins, flashing her sharp teeth. “Will you teach me how to be a dragon?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Corrin's still in a big muddle of things right now, leaning a lot more toward joining Nohr. I really want to use this arc to explore getting to know Hoshido (both the good and bad).
> 
> I have the feeling that the two halves of the chapter were really jarring against each other--on one hand it shows Corrin's emotional state, but on the other hand I'm just. :/ and telling myself the other chapters to come won't be so clashing against each other, since I had trouble putting these together.


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hated this chapter, and so I rewrote it to be from Kamui's POV, to take a break from Corrin's. It's better, but I still...just want to post this chapter and get it out of the way.
> 
> by the way, I commissioned azurmet on tumblr to draw the twins; you can see it at the very beginning of this fic now. please go take a look at their artwork, it's gorgeous.

As Kamui leads Corrin outside Castle Shirasagi and around toward the grassland in the back, he points out the bright pink cherry blossom petals in the front garden. “They only bloom for two weeks in the spring,” he explains, watching his twin’s face carefully. “Sakura was born during this time, and what with her hair, Chichi-ue and her mother named her after the trees.”

In spite of the excitement she met him with in the morning, she doesn’t seem to quite be listening. After a heartbeat too late, she starts and turns sharply to him. “‘Her mother’...?”

“Ah. We neglected to mention that, didn’t we? Sorry. Ikona was the previous queen, but she died when Sakura was born. Haha-ue was our father’s only other, well, consort during that time.”

“So…” Corrin speaks slow, and he imagines she’s wrapping her mind around even more information, and a pang of guilt and pity stings his heart. “Ryoma and the others are our half-siblings?”

“Yes.” He gives her a smile as they walk. “That explains Hinoka-nee-san’s hair, doesn’t it?”

She covers her mouth and lets out a puff of laughter, making him grin, but then, they’re walking by the training grounds. Kamui quickly looks toward the archery range, but Takumi isn’t there, nor are his retainers--and Kamui holds back a sigh of relief.

But someone who is there is Ryoma, sparring with Saizo. Ryoma’s armor glints red in the sunlight as he wields a dull iron katana. As swift as his strokes are, Saizo is faster, so adept at evasion and striking aside blows with his iron shuriken that Kamui can hardly see him at times. 

He stops and looks to Corrin. “Do you want to watch?”

Corrin shakes her head after a moment. “Perhaps another time.”

“All right.” Kamui considers the area for a moment, then continues leading her toward the small grassland near the lake. “Out here, there’s less of a chance you’ll...well, cause any damage.”

Corrin stops. Her eyes flash with a tinge of anxiety. “Is… Is it really dangerous?”

“The first time, yes.” Kamui reaches under his collar and pulls out his dragonstone pendant. “Azura gave this to me when I first started to shapeshift, but it doesn’t work until after the first time you shapeshift and awaken the full power of the dragon’s blood. So when I train you, you can’t use a stone--I did ask Azura if she could get you another one, though.”

Corirn frowns. “Where does she get them?”

Kamui shakes his head, remembering how Azura curled his fingers under hers, over the dragonstone, her lips tight but her gaze concerned. “She’s never told me.”

She looks toward the lake, but Azura is not there today--there’s not even a lyric on the wind. Corrin fidgets. “Well… Where do we start?”

He puts the dragonstone back underneath his clothes. He pauses, rubs the back of his neck. He can’t meet her eyes. “Well,” he says, nearly muttering. “Um, I’ve never had to do this before, so I’m a bit unsure myself.”

“What?” She blinks at him. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve never had to teach anyone. I started shifting...years ago, now. Around thirteen or fourteen. It was like how you’ve been half-shifting: I had outbursts, and my arm or leg would shift, or I’d sprout a tail. Heh,” he laughs, recalling a memory. “You should have seen Haha-ue the first time it happened, I thought she would faint!”

He chuckles, if a bit nervously, and Corrin hesitates, looking away. “I...was hoping you’d know what to do.”

He freezes, shame washing over him. “W-well, I do think I have an idea of how to start. I would’ve told you outright if I didn’t think I could help you  _ at all _ . Here.” He comes closer and puts his hands on her arm. “We’ll try working at this one limb at a time, and once you get used to it...we might as well have you transform fully, so you can use a dragonstone. But don’t think that will happen soon! It’s dangerous.”

“So you’ve told me,” Corrin replies, relief in her eyes and snarky amusement leaving her lips.

Kamui catches the sight of the upturn of her mouth, and he beams and blurts, “I haven’t seen you smile since we were kids.”

She blinks, her expression falling. “I guess not,” is all she says. She looks down at her arm. “So, um, how do I do this?”

Kamui swears under his breath for ruining the moment, but pushes his disappointment away and gives her arm a light squeeze. “Try to shift just this. You said you did it before, right?”

“Right.”

“That was uncontrolled. Se...how I can do it, is that I take hold of an emotion and use it to shift. I used to do it with anger--it’s really easy to use that, but that way, it’s also really easy to lose control. With my dragonstone, I think of how I want to protect the people I care about.”

Corin makes a fist and tenses her muscles, testing herself. “So I just...tap into an emotion?”

“Yes.” Kamui flounders for more words. “Well...after that you kind of….move your arm? It’s hard to explain; it’s not that much different for me now than walking is.”

She frowns. Kamui lets go and watches her close her eyes, take in a breath. She grits her teeth and flexes her arm, then once again, but nothing happens.

“That’s okay,” Kamui says at once, and Corrin opens her eyes. “You can just try again.” He pauses. “What emotion did you try using?”

“The need to protect,” she says quietly.

“Did you think of someone?”

“Yes...my little sister.”

Excitement pumps through his veins. “Sakura?”

Her lips part open. “...Elise.”

“Oh.” One of the Nohrian princesses, then. He coughs, trying and failing to cover up his disappointment. “Well, don’t be discouraged or anything. That was only your first try.”

“I’ve done it before, though.” She scuffs her foot in the grass. “...I don’t like it when I don’t get things quickly. Leo--um, Prince Leo… He tried to teach me magic once, and that didn’t go over too well.”

Kamui laughs, pretending that her mention of her fake brother didn’t faze him. “I can imagine. None of us really had the aptitude and patience for magic except Sakura.” He pauses, thinking. “What happened to make you shift, again?”

She looks away, a frown falling on her face. Her voice comes out soft. “...A man who was hired to work for me turned against us at the Bottomless Canyon.” She hesitates. “Hans attacked my retainer, Gunter, and he fell into the canyon. I was so angry and upset...” She lifts her arm a little. “It just happened.”

“I’m sorry,” Kamui says quietly, seeing the wetness in her eyes. “It’s only natural that it made you upset.”

Corrin only nods. She turns away a little more. “...Let me try again,” she murmurs, just barely audible.

“All right.”

Kamui backs up a step as Corrin shakes out her arm and closes her eyes. Her eyelids start to tremble, almost like she’s dreaming, and then her body shakes, her breathing quickens. Her arm pulses, like a wave rippling over water--

“No!” she gasps, eyes flashing open. Her chest heaves for air. Her hands shake, and she reaches out--

“Hey, hey…” Kamui takes her hand and her shoulder, gripping tightly. “It’s okay now.”

Corrin blinks, and her eyes focus. A flush spreads on her cheeks and she turns from him, grabbing her arms. “Sorry,” she mutters, breathless.

He watches her for a moment. “...Do you want to talk about it?”

She hesitates. “I just…” She shakes her head. She looks at her hand. “Can we try again later?”

“Of course. Do you want to go do something else?” He gestures back toward the training grounds. “Ryoma-nii-san might still be training with Saizo, or maybe with Kagero. We can go watch him. I’m not sure where Azura is today, so…”

Corrin nods, and she looks grateful.

They head back, and the sound of clashing metal precedes the sight of Ryoma still sparring with Saizo. The ninja leaps over a low sweep, but as he’s about to slash forward, Ryoma lifts his sword with incredible speed and blocks the shuriken.

“Nii-san is the best swordsman I’ve ever since since Chichi-ue--I mean, Father,” Kamui hastily elaborates, wondering if Corrin was able to tell what he meant when he was talking about their parents earlier. “He usually fights with the Raijinto, a katana. It used to belong to our father.”

Corrin nods, something like recognition flickering in her eyes. Kamui wonders if she remembers it, or their father, but he refrains from asking. He doesn’t want to push her. 

Finally, Ryoma catches the hilt of his training sword on Saizo’s shoulder. The ninja grunts in pain, and Ryoma takes advantage of the situation to shove Saizo onto the ground. Saizo huffs and the crown prince laughs before reaching down to help his retainer rise from the ground. Kamui takes the opportunity to lead Corrin forward.

“That was well-fought, Nii-san,” he says, smiling. “You as well, Saizo.”

Saizo nods his head, his mask hiding his mouth. He looks to Corrin, and she tenses, as if she were unprepared for his usual unimpressed expression coupled with the scar over his eye. 

“You two must be tired,” Kamui continues, hoping that Corrin will relax if he doesn’t draw attention to her. “Are you thirsty?”

“Kagero will be here shortly with waterskins,” Saizo says.

Ryoma wipes at his sweaty forehead. “Perhaps you two should spar. The exercise will do you good.” He looks to Corrin. “And I’m afraid I never really got to see you fight. I tend to run off and fight freely, to say the least,” he says with a laugh.

“Oh,” is all Corrin says. 

“Would you like to?” Kamui asks. “After all, you’ve been a bit cooped up. And we all should get back to patrolling within the next few days.”

Corrin frowns. “Patrolling?”

“That’s actually a topic for dinner tonight,” Ryoma says. He puts his hand on her shoulder. “If you’ll join us, that is.”

Corrin’s mouth opens. “...Dinner?”

“You don’t have to,” Kamui says at once, and Ryoma gives him a look that warns that maybe he’s coddling her too much. He does his best to ignore it. “I mean, we won’t force you to go if you don’t want to. But we’d really love you to come.”

She hesitates, and he hates it. She must be overwhelmed still, even with her bright attitude that morning. 

“...All right,” she says at last. “I’ll join you.” She looks to Kamui. “And we could spar, if you’d like.”

His relief brightens the grin that forms on his lips. “I would.”

* * *

Kamui drops Corrin off at her suite in the afternoon so that she can clean up before dinner. As he leaves the hallway, he signals with his hand, and Kaze appears and comes to his side.

“Have you just been silently keeping watch all this time?” the prince asks, a bit incredulously. 

Kaze crosses his arms. “...For the most part.”

When he’s quiet, Kamui raises an eyebrow. “Well?”

“She left her room last night. I retrieved her before she went outside…. I was afraid she would have kept walking.”

He seems almost pained, like there’s something more behind what he’s said, but Corrin doesn’t push him. “Have you told her?”

“No.”

Kamui stops and puts his hands on his hips. “Kaze, you can talk to her, you know. I get not wanting to push her toward anything, but I think right now she needs to get to know us before anything else. You’re no exception, no matter what.”

Kaze looks away. “...Whatever the case, it is my duty to protect her. I won’t fail her again in that.”

Kamui sighs, knowing he won’t get anything more out of the ninja. He turns and takes the stairs to the residential quarters.

Reina waits for him at the doors. “Kamui-sama,” she greets. “How was your morning with Kamiko-sama?”

“It went really well,” he says, loosening the ties around his collar. He walks further into the quarters, toward his room. Reina’s slip-up doesn’t concern him much, but he still puts emphasis on his sister’s preferred name. “ _ Corrin _ seems to finally be warming up to us. She’s quite the fighter, too.”

His retainer notices his smile, and it makes her smile in turn. “I’m glad. I can still remember you two playing together. You loved to play thieves and constables.”

Kamui chuckles. “I remember that, too.” He stops outside his door, remembering something. “Reina, while I clean up, will you go down to the kitchens and look for...forks? And a knife.”

Reina frowns for only a moment before she nods. “Ah, I see. Of course.” She bows to him, and he disappears into his room.

* * *

“Kamui?”

He stops in the hall and turns almost too quickly, finding Azura coming from the steps. He smiles--tries not to do so too eagerly--and waits for her. “Azura. I was just going to pick up Corrin for dinner.”

“Mind if I join you?” she asks, and he nods at once. She comes to his side, and they continue walking, slower now.

She glances at him. “I'm sorry, but it will take longer to get a dragonstone for Corrin. I...could not find one today.”

“No rush, Azura.” He doesn’t bother to ask her where she’s looking for it; she wasn't forthcoming the first time he asked her, and he isn't one to press into her private matters...even if he  _ is _ curious. “I think Corrin will be fine for now.”

She nods, and then notes: “You seem to have taken well to her name. Of all people, I thought perhaps you would slip up the most...if I may say so.”

“Me?” But he laughs, because he knows it's at least somewhat true. He opened up to Azura the most, upset that she went through what his twin did--though at first, he wished for a quick exchange so he could have his Kamiko returned. As time went on, he wished for the both of them to stay in Hoshido, as far away from the Nohrian court as possible. 

Azura giggles a little, and it makes him giddy. “But I suppose it makes sense.”

He’s about to ask  _ why _ , but then she stops, and he realizes they're at Corrin’s door. He knocks, and her voice calls out from inside--a moment later she comes out.

Corrin is wearing a cream-colored kimono.

The two stand a little speechless, but she doesn't seem to notice. Instead, she grumbles: “Some servants appeared out of nowhere and insisted on cleaning my armor and clothes. Then they stuck me in this. But gods forbid I wear those awful sandals they tried to put on me.”

“You look quite beautiful in that, Corrin,” Azura says, and Corrin blushes--albeit with a slight scowl at her predicament. She makes sure to thank the songstress.

“Shall we?” Kamui suggests, and together they leave to walk to the dining room.

Corrin shifts, tugging at the black  _ obi _ around her waist. “It’s almost like that corset Camilla made me wear once,” she grumbles, and Azura laughs suddenly. Corrin gives a reluctant smile. “...At least it’s not as tight, just stiff.”

Kamui laughs as well, but he also raises an eyebrow at Azura's reaction. “What’s a ‘corset’?”

“Uh… Clothing for upper-class women,” she mutters, and when she flushes slightly, Kamui assumes it’s best not to ask further. 

“Do people wear these all the time?” Corrin asks then, bare feet plodding along the floor. Azura seems relieved when Kamui turns his attention from her.

“Simple ones, yes. Sakura does, as does Queen Mikoto. Hinoka will only wear one at dinner and special events,” Azura replies. “I find kimono beautiful, but too stiff for my liking.”

Kamui can barely believe that their conversation is bordering on  _ normal _ . “Hinoka started hating them as soon as she realized they got in the way of using a naginata.”

“Naginata…?” Corrin repeats.

“A spear.”

“Oh.” Corrin nods, looks away, and Kamui feels a pang of panic, but then she speaks. “...Are we almost there?”

“Yes.” Kamui points toward the end of the hallway. “The family dining room. It’s not nearly as big as the one we use during events.”

She falters for a moment, but he gives her a smile. “It’s okay. I’m sure you’ll love the food.”

He said that on the off-chance that she wasn’t nervous about spending more time with her birth family, but he can tell that his words had been far off. He leans in a little closer and whispers: “Trust me, Corrin. The others are as nervous about this as you are.”

Her whole face tightens, like she doesn’t believe him--but then the expression is gone. “Well, we can only try,” she says, equally quiet.

They enter the room to find that Sakura, Hinoka, and Mikoto are already at the table, waiting for the rest before putting food on their plates. They rest with their knees on cushions, their legs tucked underneath them. Sakura looks up and blushes, gaze darting back down while her hands tug her kimono even straighter; Hinoka looks up, nerves only slightly hidden on her face, and she watches Corrin, as does their mother, her expression warm and hopeful and happier than Kamui thinks he’s ever seen her.

“Sit, sit,” the queen ushers, indicating the middle cushions on each side of the table; Kamui automatically moves to his seat, but when Corrin tries to follow, he hesitates.

Hinoka pats the spot between her and Sakura. “You sit here, Corrin.” The name is still awkward on her lips. “This was always your spot.”

“Oh…” Corrin exchanges a look with Kamui. He nods, and she reluctantly moves to sit between her sisters. Azura moves with her, but takes her seat at Sakura’s other side, at the end of the table.

There’s an immediate problem.

Corrin tries to sit on her bottom, not her knees, and the tight kimono trips her up. She tips over toward Sakura, who squeaks, but Hinoka’s hands dart out and clutch at her shoulders to keep her upright.

“C-Corrin-nee-san?!” Sakura also helps to steady the older girl. “A-are you okay?”

Corrin is flushed and staring at the floor. “I’m just not used to these clothes, is all.”

“It’s all right, I hate them too,” Hinoka says, her voice filled with warmth. 

Mikoto is frowning, just a little. “Corrin? Is it hard for you to sit on your knees?”

A hesitant nod is given in return, and Mikoto smiles. “It’s all right, dear. We’ll forgive you for sitting how you like.”

The relief on Corrin’s face is so apparent that it’s almost palpable to Kamui. He chuckles as Hinoka helps her hike up her skirts just enough to make it possible for her to sit on her behind--albeit with the right knee bent under the left thigh while the other leg is straight beneath the table. “Your clothes should be ready by morning. And maybe we can have clothes tailored for you so you can get used to all this easier.”

Corrin bites her lip. Her eyes flick around the scene, searching for a way to change the subject. “Where are Ryoma and--and Takumi?”

“R-Ryoma-nii-sama is coming from a meeting,” Sakura supplies quietly. “T-they aren’t usually late.”

“Hinoka is most often the one late,” Mikoto adds, failing to properly hide a chuckle behind her hand. 

“Not always!” Hinoka protests, flustered, but at that moment, footsteps sound nearby and Ryoma and Takumi enter through the doorway. Ryoma is without his armor, instead in a red pair of hakama over a white, somewhat loose kimono; he brightens when he notices Corrin.

“You came, good,” he says, hurrying to his seat at Mikoto’s right hand. “I’m glad you could join us.”

As Corrin gives a hesitant smile, Takumi huffs. Kamui glances up, glad that Takumi is at Corrin’s back so his sister can’t see the archer’s scowl. Takumi hesitates, but then completely freezes when he catches sight of Mikoto’s stare; he does his best to wipe his face of emotion and quickly takes his seat at Kamui’s left. The archer smells of sweat and the outdoors, like he spent all day away from the castle.

A servant comes to check their food for poison, as it’s all meant to be shared, and then the family--nearly as one, save for Corrin--claps their hands together.  _ Itadakimasu _ is murmured around the table, followed by a noticeably late and mispronounced addition from Corrin. Takumi scoffs, but Kamui nudges him with his elbow.

“Stop it, nii-san,” the archer hisses, moving to take his bowl of rice in hand. Kamui doesn’t respond, for fear of starting an argument.

“S-so,” Sakura starts. She tries repeatedly to look Corrin in the eyes. “Nee-sama… Do you like your room?”

It’s like that for a small while as they eat--the other siblings asking her polite questions that only slightly border on prodding:  _ Is that kimono okay? _ and  _ Do you like the food here? _ and  _ You used to love unagi, do you still--oh, why don’t you try? _ And Kamui finds himself smiling, staying mostly silent and watching as he eats, and Azura does the same. The others seem to know well enough not to pry too much into Corrin’s opinion of Hoshido, at least not for the moment.

But then, when the conversation winds down and the food is eaten, Ryoma exchanges a glance with Mikoto. She nods, and then the eldest prince clears his throat.

“I have something to discuss with you all,” he says, and all eyes turn to him.

“Yukimura, myself, and Haha-ue have decided that we should return to patrolling near the border towns at once.”

Hinoka nods. “You’re right. Even a few days are too long without one of us being out there as well.”

“Exactly,” Ryoma agrees. “We’ve decided that a trip to the southern border is due. It will be a light trip with minimal soldiers accompanying us, as there are already guard squadrons stationed there. We’ll make our way back up north afterward, and then loop back here. The entire trip shouldn’t be more than two or three weeks with so few of us.”

“I-I would like to come,” Sakura volunteers. “In case anyone out there is wounded or sick.”

“Of course. But also…” And now, Ryoma looks to Corrin. “We would like to invite you along, Corrin. It would give you ample opportunity to become reaquainted with Hoshido.”

Her red eyes go wide, but before she can speak, Takumi drops his chopsticks onto his plate, and the clatter startles Kamui. 

“That’s right, let’s take her right toward the border where she can run back home and tell those Nohrian idiots right where are defenses are weak,” the archer hisses.

“Takumi--” The name comes from not just Kamui’s lips, but Hinoka’s and Ryoma’s, but another voice drowns them out:

“Takumi, do not speak that way about your sister,” Mikoto says. She doesn’t snap at him, but her words are harder and her lips are set in a line. 

Takumi doesn’t speak for a moment, but then he glares at Corrin. “...If she’s going, I’m definitely going too.”

Corrin’s eyes are wide as she stares back at him. All at once she looks away and leans toward Hinoka--Hinoka looks at Takumi like he’s grown another head. He scowls and looks at his plate.

Ryoma clears his throat, as if trying to pretend Takumi’s outburst were only a minor cough. “I’m afraid we must leave as soon as possible, which means the morning. I’ll be going, and I would hope, Hinoka, that you came as well.”

She nods. “Of course.”

Ryoma turns to Kamui, but before he can speak, Corrin leans forward, her serious red eyes trained on her eldest brother. “I’ll go. I want to see more of Hoshido.”

Takumi scoffs, but the sound is almost drowned out when Kamui and Azura speak in accidental unison: “Then I’ll go as well.”

The two glance at each other, and Kamui feels his cheeks heat. 

“I-I will go, of course,” Sakura adds, and from the front of the table, Mikoto laughs behind her hand.

“A sudden empty nest,” she says, half-joking. “It’s almost as if I’ll have a vacation of my own.”

A shadow passes through her eyes. “But please, my children: Stay together, and remain safe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final note: I will be going to Japan for study abroad soon, so who knows how this will affect my writing schedule. I'll do my best.
> 
> I'm also looking for a beta! Message me if you're interested.


	6. Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They travel in Hoshido, and Corrin learns more about her siblings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always liked "Mozume" a bit better than "Mozu" (although that's a cute sort of nickname). In the JPN she speaks with a heavy country accent (the actual name of it escapes me and like hell I'm researching it when it could mess up my Tokyo-style speech when I already have my American accent, lol). She also uses the pronoun "atai" which isn't really common, and it's also pretty informal apparently. Since she's Hoshidan, I thought it best to make her first language "Hoshidan." What she says is translated pretty much a line later, so I won't list out translations for her.
> 
> "Douzo! Douzo!" = "Here! Here!" (as in a sort of "by all means")

“So tell me, Corrin,” Azura says from atop her pegasus. For now, the creature is plodding along down the highway, its wings tucked neatly against its sides. “Your….fish, is it?”

Lilith fidgets on Corrin’s shoulder. She insisted on coming with them--not that Corrin minded--although now it’s all just reminding Corrin of how... _unreal_ her childhood friend has become. All the same, she lifts her hand from the reins and pats her old friend’s head. “Her name is Lilith. I...found her, I suppose. I’ve known her for a long time. She goes everywhere with me.”

Azura smiles at Lilith. “You’re very beautiful, Lilith.”

Lilith tenses, but a moment later, her tail thwacks against Corrin’s back a little, like she’s wagging it. She doesn’t say anything, as they’ve long since agreed to keep her level of sentience a secret for as long as possible. Still, Corrin doesn’t like keeping secrets from Azura, even though they’re mostly strangers.

They stay more toward the back of the travel party. Ryoma and Takumi take the lead, consulting maps, and Takumi occasionally tries to put in that _It wouldn’t be a bad idea to go to the Wind Tribe_ to which Ryoma would calmy argue _That would be a sound idea, if it weren’t so out of the way._ Takumi’s retainers share a horse, both squirming a bit uncomfortably in the saddle, as if they weren’t really meant to ride. Ryoma’s red-haired retainer--Saizo--is ahead, sticking to the trees, while the woman who once was with him is now completely gone, at least to the naked eye.

Hinoka is in the skies, flying overhead every once in awhile, her female retainer--whose name Corrin can’t remember--holding on tightly to her liege's waist. Another pegasus rider patrols up there with them. The monk Azama is walking near the middle of the group on the ground, for once quiet, as if perhaps afraid of the sharp point of the blade belonging to Hana.

Then comes Corrin and Azura, and behind them, Sakura and Kamui, trailed by Kaze, Rinkah and Reina, although the latter woman is in the skies as well. A handful of soldiers belonging to the royal guard protect the small caravan that carries their supplies.

“Do you fly on your pegasus?” Corrin asks.

“Every once in awhile,” Azura says. She leans forward to pat at her mount’s neck. “Mei loves to fly. But I'm not adept at flying, or fighting from the saddle.”

“I'm the same with riding.” Corrin lowers her voice. “All of my siblings as so good at it, even my little sister, Elise. I'd give this horse to someone else in a heartbeat if it meant I could just sit on the back with someone else at the reins.”

“Elise?” Azura echoes, tipping her head and looking off toward the trees. “She was only a baby when I was taken here.”

“She would love to meet you.” Corrin grins, imagining how Elise would jump all over Azura--literally and figuratively. “Another sister? She'd be ecstatic.”

Azura's smiles are small, reserved, but Corrin feels her happiness when she hums out in agreement. “Step-sister,” she corrects softly, as if an afterthought. “Garon is not my father by blood.”

This startles Corrin for a moment. It is no secret that of all the children King Garon sired--some having died in infancy or childhood from disease or assassination, or perhaps even children who knew nothing of their true heritage, as Gunter once let slip--none of them had the same mother. Corrin assumed that Azura's case was the same.

“Well apparently,” Corrin replies quietly. “Neither is he mine.”

* * *

The first two nights are spent in the Great Wall of Suzanoh and Fort Jinya, respectively, and Corrin is too tired to care that--even in the quarters reserved for visiting royals--the futons are harder and there is less room. Azura, who shares rooms with her, is much the same. Though they’re mostly quiet once they get to bed, Corrin learns a little more about the princess, like how her hair inexplicably turns into a frazzled mess by morning.

Corrin wonders if she’ll miss this once she crosses the border.

Every free moment of her thoughts is consumed by the desire to flee. Kaze only talks to her when necessary, and keeps the Ganglari on his person. Takumi throws her distrustful looks time after time, rightfully making sure she won’t bolt for the hills. Whenever Hinoka isn’t in the skies, she and Sakura try to talk to her, Hinoka more often than not making references to Corrin’s past life that she still can’t remember. Saizo is a wary one as well, and she remembers how he was one of the Hoshidan ninjas at the border fort she thought was abandoned.

The third night of their trip, they start to make camp when the sun reaches the tops of the trees on the western horizon. The soldiers and retainers take care of setting up tents--one for each royal sibling including Corrin, a shade for the mess area, and a handful of tents for the retainers and soldiers to share while not on the night watch. Ryoma assures Corrin that it’s just a precaution, that the Hoshidan countryside is only really plagued by the Faceless, and that they’re too far east to encounter any.

Someone makes a small fire near the middle of camp to provide light--the night is plenty warm enough to make do with just blankets--and Corrin sits beside it, unsure of what to do. The others seem to have taken up whatever hobby they might have to spend the last hour of daylight while dinner is prepared; Takumi took his bow and retainers off toward the nearby field, Hinoka and Azura went to care for their pegasi with the stablehand. Sakura and Kamui are nowhere to be seen, and neither is--

“Corrin.”

She looks up to find Ryoma standing just at the edge of the firelight. He steps forward a little. “May I sit with you?”

She nods, and he sits beside her, leaving a respectful distance between them. The sky is only now starting to darken, and the firelight makes his face glow.

She tenses for a split-second, her mind racing--she feels like she’s seen him like this before. _No… Not quite the same, but…_ She tries not to shake her head, not wanting to alert him to the fact that the strangest case of deja vu is assaulting her.

But then, he’s looking at her expectantly. “What?” Corrin says. Then, a bit less bluntly: “I’m sorry, my mind wandered.”

“That’s all right,” he says with a laugh. “I was just asking you how you’re liking what you’ve seen of Hoshido. I know we haven’t gone through any towns, but I was wondering how you liked the countryside.”

“Oh. Well, it’s quite beautiful.” And it is, with its spurts of forests and large rice paddies and fields. “I’ve never seen places like this before. I’ve only read about them in books.”

“We’ll be passing by the Wind Tribe territory. Maybe we’ll go through a village so you can see one,and then we’ll be heading for the southern border, by the sea. Surely you’ve seen the sea before?”

Corrin shakes her head. “I was kept in Castle Krakenburg--near Windmire--most of my life. I was quarantined after I was sick in….childhood.” Her brows furrow, and she looks away.

Ryoma doesn’t say anything to that, like he knows exactly what she’s thinking and that it can be left unsaid.

The silence weighs on her shoulders. While she understands now that her origins in Nohr are fake, never would she consider the bond between her and the siblings she grew up with to be. She wants to go home to them, to go to a place where she doesn’t feel like a stranger.

“Will you tell me about our siblings?” she says at last, finally finding a topic to dispel the quiet, and to perhaps make her feel less like an outsider.

“Of course.” And Ryoma’s voice turns warm like the fire. “Let’s see… Hinoka used to be such a crybaby….”

And so he goes on, describing how Hinoka took up riding pegasi, how Takumi learned archery from their mother while Sakura took on the healing arts despite the fact that work is not for princesses or ladies of the court (Corrin’s nose crinkles at this). Hinoka is dependable--especially to her retainers, Ryoma notes with a laugh, and Takumi is rough but smart and “brittle,” but Corrin doesn’t understand what he means by that. Sakura is shy, but the most kind and caring girl you could ever meet. Azura is the same, but even more distant, sometimes appearing cold.

“Kamui will never say it….but he was a mess after you were taken,” Ryoma says, lowering his voice.

Corrin’s legs are pulled up to her chest. She was resting her head on her knees, but now she looks over at Ryoma. “How so?”

“He threw fits that lasted hours,” he explains. The firelight dances in his eyes. _When did it get so dark out?_ “There were entire days when he didn’t have a voice because of it. And he would become violent--Reina has a scar on her arm from when he bit her once. He would yell about wanting to wage war on Nohr to get you back--that was when he was six.”

Her stomach feels cold, knotted. It doesn’t seem right to talk about Kamui like this when he isn’t around. But Ryoma doesn’t stop.

“Haha-ue would have to sing to him to calm him down, and that would take forever sometimes. Even after Chichi-ue and you were taken from us, I’d never seen her so afraid as when Kamui was in those fits.”

“What changed?” Corrin barely realizes she’s asking the question.

“I’m not sure about the details, but not long after it was apparent that Azura wasn’t going to be able to get your back, he calmed. I suspect it has something to do with how much time he started to spend with her. He started to want a peaceful solution more than anything else in order to have you returned to us.”

Corrin shakes her head, more in amazement than disbelief. “I had no idea.” _No idea about any of you, any of_ this _…._

Ryoma smiles, like he wasn’t just talking about his younger brother’s personal business. “It’s all right. You’re here now, and that’s what matters.”

She’s about to blurt _I may accept you but I still want to go home and you won't let me_ when a bell chimes, signaling that dinner is ready.

Ryoma rises to his feet and reaches out his hand toward her. She waves it away and rises by herself.

* * *

_Xander stands above her. He extends his hand, smiling, saying something that Corrin understands more on a whole than hearing the individual words._

_She takes his hand, and then she’s on the roof of one of the towers in the Northern Fortress. Leo usually oversees them, but he’s nowhere to be found. Neither are Elise and Camilla, no matter where she turns._

_She looks back toward Xander, but he’s gone. The ground where he stood is covered in blood._

* * *

Corrin bolts straight upright, fingers clenching around her blanket. She gasps for air, her lungs feeling so suddenly small. Her head whips around, taking in the modest tent around her, the futon under her legs. She scrambles to her feet and leaves, not really hearing when Lilith whispers something and hurries after to latch onto her shoulder and hide under her hair.

The sky is completely clear, a blue-grey that signals the time before dawn.The light washes everything into grey, with little shadow. The camp is silent, muted, almost like nothing really exists.

The ground absorbs the sound of her footsteps. She walks straight toward the nearby grassland, not looking at her surroundings. She hunches forward, arms crossed, one hand over her mouth. She blinks and she sees the blood behind her eyelids.

_Was it Xander’s?_

She closes her eyes.

“Corrin?”

She tenses and takes a breath, then turns to find Hinoka standing behind her. The grey light makes her seem flat, like she isn’t real.

She forces a smile onto her face, and she’s sure it must be strained. “I just woke up a little early.”

A frown tugs at Hinoka’s lips, but then she gestures off toward one side of camp. “Would you like to come see my pegasus? I’m sure he’d love to meet you.”

“Sure,” Corrin says quietly, then follows behind Hinoka toward the edge of camp, where the horses and pegasi are in a makeshift pen. Already, the stable hand is moving to deliver water to the mounts.

“This is Toyo,” Hinoka says as they approach the smaller of the male pegasi. Toyo snorts and leans his head toward Hinoka; she laughs and reaches out to pet his nose before reaching into her satchel and presenting him with a tiny chunk of sugar. He nickers and nibbles it from her hand.

“Let him sniff you,” Hinoka suggests, moving aside. Corrin hesitates, but comes forward. Toyo seems friendlier than Xander’s and Leo’s horses, more like Elise’s mare or Marzia minus the eerie red eyes. Corrin lays her hand flat, holding it out; Toyo sniffs it, but quickly moves his head back toward Hinoka.

“You don’t have a treat,” she laughs. “But he didn’t move away from you, so that’s good.” She glances at Corrin. “Do you want to ride him?”

Corrin immediately shakes her head. “I’m not good with heights.”

“Have you flown before?”

She’s pretty sure it’s a bad idea to blurt _With my sister on her wyvern_ , so she says: “Not on a pegasus. Anyway… What made you want to become a sky knight?”

She’s hoping for just a slight change of topic to make sure that Hinoka doesn’t push her to ride, but apprehension starts to well in her stomach when Hinoka turns quiet.

“I don’t know if it’s a story I should tell you,” she says, taking a brush from her satchel and moving to Toyo’s other side. She sweeps the tool over him a few times, and then slows. She looks at Corrin over the pegasus’s back. “No, you deserve to know, especially since you’re here now.”

She takes a breath. “After you were kidnapped, I was so mad, I didn’t know what to do with myself. A few times, I snuck out of the castle, thinking I could come save you.”

Corrin’s eyes widen. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Hinoka stops brushing Toyo. “I was always stopped, sometimes by the staff, or Ryoma, or even Haha-ue. I was just so angry that those Nohrians had stolen you away from us, and… I was mad at myself for not being able to do anything about it.”

“...But if they hadn’t stopped you,” Corrin says, nearly whispering, her mind full. “Would you have kept going?”

“I think so. But as I got older, I realized that I was trying to do the impossible.” She shakes her head. “I was so young; there was no way I could walk through all of Nohr and save you. And then one day, I saw a pegasus flying…” She pats Toyo’s side.

Corrin’s hand reaches and grabs her right arm, as if testing to make sure it’s there. “So that was when you decided to become a sky knight.”

Hinoka nods. “That decision has driven almost everything I’ve done since then. I’m not a lady of the court, but I just--I’m much more stronger and determined this way. And even now that you’re back with us, I could never stop being a pegasus knight.”

 _But what will you do_ , Corrin thinks, _when I walk toward Nohr and just keep going?_

Hinoka squints as yellow light comes up over the fields. “It’s dawn. Breakfast will be soon.”

“I should go get ready,” Corrin says. She doesn’t wait for Hinoka to say anything before she turns and heads back to her tent.

* * *

Ryoma opts for not going to the Wind Tribe. He seems disappointed, says it would be nice to see Fuga--Kamui jokes _Uncle Fuga_ \--but that it’s too out of the way for their mission. They plan to leave the highway and head straight for the sea just below where the Bottomless Canyon connects to the ocean.

During their downtime, Corrin asks Kamui for more lessons, but they keep meeting the same wall, and Corrin can’t make any sort of transformation. Azura is usually with them, staying quiet but reassuring. Corrin feels the back of her neck prickle sometimes, and she turns to see Takumi watching from a distance, his eyes narrowed. She can’t blame him.

Kamui spends a lot of time with Sakura as well, and soon enough it becomes apparent why. The youngest princess sits between the twins one night at dinner, and then stutters out “C-can you t-tell me what you like to do, Corrin-nee-sama?” while Kamui looks on proudly.

And so Corrin tells her about the piano--though she has to explain what it is, what Nohrian books are like, and about training. Sakura seems more open about hearing what the Nohrian royals are like, and while Corrin wants nothing more than to run her mouth about them, she’s conscious of how Takumi and Hinoka and even Ryoma watch her when she speaks of them. Sakura picks up on this, and asks her more about it the next day, when they’re traveling out of earshot of their siblings. She must be as eager and honest a person as Elise, though it’s all hidden under her shyness.

Right when their supplies start to run low, their path takes them to a small village. Modest huts sit on a slight hill, and south of it runs a stream that separates the main area from the crops. There are children yelping in delight even as they help their elders in the fields, and older women sit on the hill while working on quilts.

Corrin watches, speechless.

“Something the matter?” Kamui asks, halting his gelding beside hers while a messenger from the village walks with hurried steps toward the royals.

Even after having the time to settle the information in her head, in the back of her mind Corrin still finds it odd to have normal conversations with her twin. Most times, she’ll be fine, but then an errant thought of a violent Kamui--even imagined as it is--makes her stomach twist with guilt. Guilt about the sheer awareness of the fact, and guilt that she had a part in it.

She shakes her head. “I’ve just never seen a village like this. Most places in Nohr aren’t this…” She searches for the word. “Plentiful.”

He gives her a quizzical look. “This is a small place. I mean, they get by and have more than enough to help us resupply, but this isn’t nearly as ‘plentiful’ as perhaps more toward the sea, or toward the northern river.”

Corrin just shakes her head again. “Even going through Windmire to get to the castle isn’t like this.”

Kamui frowns thoughtfully, but doesn’t reply. Ahead, villagers are starting to gather together, casting curious glances at the envoy. A burly man comes to join the messenger, and together they bow deeply to Ryoma before speaking to him in Hoshidan.

Corrin glances toward Kamui, but he’s already interpreting: “Ryoma’s only asking for us to stay for one night, out here--he doesn’t want to impose on their homes. He’s asking for some supplies now... And I think the leader just offered for his people to make us dinner and to take care of the horses.”

Ryoma turns and gives a signal to the party, and everyone dismounts while some villagers come forward to take their horses, although the pegasus riders opt to go with them. The soldiers start to set up camp, but Kamui leads Corrin away.

A young woman walks up to them, pigtails in her brown hair and freckles on her cheeks. She bows. _“Mozume to moushimasu. Atai-tachi--a, ano, watashi-tachi no mura e youkoso.”_

Corrin stares at her.

Kamui smiles. “Mozume, do you know the Common? I’m afraid my sister doesn’t understand Hoshidan very well.”

Mozume’s brows knit together, but she immediately realizes her mistake and hurries to smile. “ _Atai wa--_ I mean, I know some.” Now that she's speaking in a way Corrin can understand, she can hear the slight drawl in the girl’s accent. She looks to Corrin and bows again. “My name is Mozume. Welcome to our village.”

She nods. “Hello, Mozume.”

Mozume shuffles, like she isn’t sure what to do. “Would you, um, like to look around?”

* * *

Mozume is kind, endearingly so. She often forgets to use more polite speech, and hurries to cover up her tracks--it’s something that someone like Leo might gripe about, but Corrin finds no fault in it. She shows them around the village before she excuses herself when a villager asks for her help with making dinner; Kamui waves off any other help.

“Let’s go look at the fields,” he suggests, and Corrin is quick to agree. They head down the slope and come to the bridge that leads across the water, but Kamui stops and points.

Kaze is talking to a woman near several baskets that must contain part of the current harvest. They’re too far away to hear at a normal volume--but then suddenly, the woman’s voice becomes high-pitched. Corrin freezes, but Kamui just puts his hand on her shoulder and rolls his eyes.

“Watch,” he says, barely hiding a laugh.

The woman starts talking to Kaze in a voice that’s still rather loud, but also incredibly fast. Corrin can’t understand it, but once she sees the dreamy expression on the woman’s face, she doesn’t have to.

 _“Douzo! Douzo!”_ The woman turns to grab one of the baskets--a full one--and all but shoves it into Kaze’s arms. She says something more, putting a hand up in a sort of _wait a moment_ gesture, and then hurries out of the field and past Corrin and Kamui, hardly giving them more than a glance.

Kamui laughs and tugs Corrin along, and when they reach Kaze, Corrin can hear the end of a sigh passing his lips.

“Is something wrong, Kaze?” Kamui asks, a lilt in his voice. “What’s with all the daikon?”

Kaze turns, his arms still wrapped around the basket. “Ah, Kamui-sama, Corrin-sama.” He nods to them, although when he catches her gaze, he quickly glances back toward Kamui. “I was told to help gather supplies for the convoy, so I came out with that woman. I offered to help her pick some more vegetables, but she said that wasn’t an issue and then…” He lifts up the basket just a little.

“Looks like we’re having a daikon feast tonight, huh?” Kamui elbows Corrin, and she can’t help but smile at his infectious amusement.

“That sounds great,” she adds.

Kaze lets out a slight sight. “I must disagree. It’s not ‘great.’”

“What’s the matter? Something against daikon?” Kamui is still grinning.

“While yes, I am glad I’ve gotten food for our convoy, her actions were… too much, for such a simple kindness.” He shakes his head. “This is not the first time something like this has happened, either.”

Corrin frowns. “It’s... not?”

“Oh no, it’s not,” Kamui says.

Kaze’s lips purse together. He looks genuinely puzzled. “I can’t figure out why, but… I find I’m often approached by women who wish to speak with me or give me things.”

The twins share a look, and by now, Corrin understands completely: Kaze is dense--at least about matters concerning women. “Is that so?” she asks, hiding her smile behind her hand.

“It gets worse.” He doesn’t seem to realize that she’s playing along with Kamui now. “If I speak even a few words, they’ll often start shrieking or hugging me. Sometimes they’ll give me letters or garments of clothing. No one in Shirasagi acts this way, of course. It’s just strangers. It’s…” He searches for the word. “Frustrating.”

By now Corrin is giggling so much that it’s hard to speak. “Sounds to me like you’re just popular with the ladies.”

He winces. “Popular? With...the ladies?” It sounds like a foreign concept coming from him.

Kamui laughs. “I keep trying to tell you, Kaze. You’re a good man, and mysterious--and a ninja, that doesn’t hurt either.” He looks to Corrin. “Once, I heard someone say, ‘That sorrowful look on Kaze’s gorgeous face is _waaay_ too dreamy!’”

“...I wish you hadn’t told me that.” Kaze is shifting his weight, like he wants nothing more than to bolt. His cheeks are the slightest shade of pink. “I appreciate the praise, but… I would prefer to focus on my duties and keep such silly distractions to a minimum.”

“Don’t most men dream of this kind of attention?” Corrin jokes.

Kaze shakes his head. “I’m simply behaving as any self-respecting ninja should. That’s all there is to it.” His words become more pointed. “In any case, they are mistaken. I’m not a good man.”

Kamui immediately stops laughing. Corrin frowns, and her mind pops up with the memory of how Kaze stopped her from leaving Shirasagi. That couldn’t…

“Why would you say that?” she finds herself asking.

Kaze averts his eyes from the both of them. “...It’s nothing. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should take these back to the convoy.”

Without another word, he slips past them with an ease and speed that makes it seem like he disappeared completely.

Corrin looks to Kamui, but he just shakes his head, staring at the ground. “It’s not something I can say for him. He’ll come around eventually.”

“So it’s just something... personal?” she asks.

He only nods. He runs a hand through his hair. “Let’s go look for Azura. I’m sure she’s hiding somewhere from all the people.”

* * *

The next morning, after Corrin says goodbye to Mozume--and thanks her for such a delicious dinner--the group heads out. The trail turns more south, and Ryoma warns that now they’re in western Hoshido, so they should be more alert for Faceless.

The days pass rather uneventfully. More populous towns start to spring up the closer they get to the sea, but Ryoma mostly avoids those--they’re not sightseeing, after all, though Hinoka more than once offers to take Corrin flying to get a better look. Corrin always declines.

After a few days they make it to the ocean, and it’s unlike anything Corrin has ever seen before: It’s blue, endless blue dotted with white caps and the reflections from the sun. Every second it moves, changes, and it mesmerizes her.

Then, they’re close to the Bottomless Canyon.

Corrin can’t help it; she keeps glancing toward the west, wondering where the best spot for passage is. It’s hard to tell, since the canyon is surrounded on both sides by mountains, and Ryoma is only taking them along the bottom. As unfamiliar with the territory as Corrin is, she’ll be lucky if she ascends and manages to find a crossing, or even a Dragon Vein. That’s what she’ll have to rely on, without having tapped into her transformation power yet.

Her anxiousness doesn’t go unnoticed. She can feel Takumi’s sharp eye on her, and he doesn’t even try to hide his stare when she glances at him.

On the second night of their trek northward, Azura invites Corrin into her tent.

“You want to go back, don’t you?” the songstress says, her voice barely loud enough even to be a whisper.

Corrin nods. She doesn’t hesitate to hide her desires, not around Azura.

Azura remains quiet for a moment. Then: “The best crossing is where Saizo reported you were at just before you came here. That’s still north of us, at least another four days. There’s a highway leading to it. The only other way is to go south and take a boat.”

“I thought about that,” Corrin murmurs. For some reason, she isn’t the least bit surprised that Azura is helping her like this. She thinks she understands why, too. “But… I don’t know how to swim. I’m a little afraid.”

“I should have taught you in Shirasagi,” Azura says, and Corrin thinks she catches the slightest of smiles.

“That’s okay.”

Azura looks away, draws her knees up to her chest. “...Will you tell me about my step-siblings in Nohr?”

And so Corrin does. She talks about Xander’s kindness and dedication, Leo’s genius and shrewd nature that hides his care, Camilla’s motherly hugs and cheek-kisses, and Elise’s fondness for others. She doesn’t ask Azura if she wants to go with her; there’s no point.

When Corrin leaves to return to her own tent, she sees Takumi walking through camp. She ignores him and keeps moving, but suddenly, there he is, standing in her way.

He glares at her. “What were you talking about?” he hisses.

She thinks about walking past him, but she knows that won’t make him happy, to say the least. “We’re close to Nohr, and so Azura just wanted to know what it’s like over there right now.”

“Planning on escaping?” he snaps. “And telling Nohr every little detail about us?”

She doesn’t want to argue with him, but she doesn’t know what else to do. “I want there to be peace,” she says earnestly. “The last thing I would do is run to Nohr and tell them where you’re weak.”

Takumi shakes his head. “I don’t believe you, not for a second.”

She grimaces. “I understand. I could never ask you to.”

Her words must not have been what he was expecting, because the anger in his eyes gives way to confusion. Without another word, Corrin slips past him and hurries to her tent, wondering just how much more he would hate her once she goes home.

* * *

_Elise giggles and grabs onto her hand. She says something and tugs her along through a corridor and then into a wide room._

_Xander is there, sword in hand. His face is hard, his lips thin and his jaw set tight._

_He lifts his sword._

* * *

Corrin jolts awake.

“Lady Corrin?” Lilith says. “Was it another dream?”

Corrin lays there, feels the cold sweat on her body. “Yes.” She doesn't want to describe it.

She sits up. She looks at her lap. “...Can dreams be premonitions?”

Lilith fidgets where she sits on the cot. When Corrin isn't looking at her, she can almost imagine that the girl is human again. “Among diviners, and other select people.”

Corrin shakes her head. “I used to have dreams about my siblings here, didn't I?”

“Maybe that was just the part of you that remembered them.”

“I don't know,” Corrin starts, but before she can say anything, a loud clanging sounds outside. The two share a look, and then Corrin stands and rushes from her tent, telling Lilith to hide.

A handful of soldiers are already packing away tents. Ryoma is at one end of camp, mounting his horse.

“Everyone!” he calls. “Everyone! To your mounts! The Faceless have been sighted!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've also updated the tags to include Corrin's pairing. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ I like ninjas ~~also Kaze fits the story really well~~


	7. Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel bad for posting this when I have other obligations rn, but well...a huge chunk of this was already written and I just couldn't help myself. 
> 
> Thanks for keeping up with me and understanding how crunched I am for time this year! I'm having a great time in Japan but it leaves very little time for myself to write (especially in English).

Saizo found a swath of forest destroyed, a thick line of felled trees and huge footprints that all lead eastward, further into Hoshidan territory.

The main party rides at top speed through the forest, leaving the convoy behind with soldiers to guard them following at a slower pace. Corrin rides her horse at the back, too inexperienced to spur it any faster.

After almost three hours, the group slows, and comes into a large farming field. To the north is a river, and the northeast a small village.

It's the village they resupplied within their recent days of traveling. Only now the ground is bloody, scattered over with bodies. It's overrun with Faceless.

Ryoma immediately calls for two groups, one to take the village and the other to the fields and nearby woodlands. Corrin leaps from her horse, Ganglari in hand. She moves with Kamui, Reina, Kaze, Azura, Rinkah and Takumi and his retainers into the field.

The Faceless must number in the dozens. They thrash about, limbs as thick as tree trunks, the chains on their wrists flying out in wide arcs. Corrin ducks under one and comes up to slash, rending it through the stomach. It disintegrates into ash, leaving another in its wake; Kamui darts in from the side and stabs it through the heart, and that one falls as well. 

Azura sings from behind as she swings her lance at any Faceless to come near. Her voice carries to the soldiers, and Corrin can feel her muscles become invigorated. Her mind becomes blank, her body almost moving of its own accord. She and Kamui fight together, darting back and forth almost seamlessly, like a dance in time to Azura’s song. 

And then, a shrill scream pierces her concentration. 

She turns in an instant and darts away toward the voice, where the river bends and becomes deeper, surrounded on both sides by trees. Grotesque Faceless reach out toward her--some even leap--but she slices off their hands and limbs to slow them down. Corrin notices a second too late that one is gunning toward her from the side, but then, one of Kaze’s shuriken flies out and hits it in the shoulder with enough force to send it spinning. She thinks Kamui calls after her, but his voice is distant. 

Through a gap in the group of Faceless, Corrin sees movement in the trees.

“Mozume!”

Corrin rolls under a massive fist, and then there’s a small space clear of everything but blood and a body. She sprints, and then slashes into one of the Faceless surrounding Mozume. It roars and turns to her, but she strikes twice into its chest and it bursts into ash.

“Mozume!” She slips between the Faceless to stand between them and the girl. “Are you okay?”

“C-Corrin-sama!” The girl holds a thin spear in her hands, but her whole body shakes. Her face is pale, and her cheek and her side are splattered with blood. “ _ Kaa-san ga--! _ ”

She can’t finish. Two Faceless attack, and Corrin twirls her sword to slice off their hands.

“Get back!” she yells to Mozume, and the girl backs up through the trees, toward the curve of the river. Corrin follows backward, unwilling to attack straight on for fear of letting one get past her.

Out of the corner of her eye she sees a blast of bluish light strike one of the Faceless at the edge, and it instantly vaporizes. The others press forward, even when Corrin manages to slay one. One lifts its fists high, and Corrin turns to deflect the oncoming attack, but she already knows she won’t be able to fully block the blow.

A figure leaps onto the back of the monster--it’s Kaze. He reaches, shuriken in hand, and slices its neck. The Faceless groans, slimy blood gargling its voice, and tries to grab Kaze, but he slips between its arms to land beside Corrin. He ducks forward to slice with the blades on his vambraces, and it staggers backward into the Faceless behind it before it bursts apart.

“Thanks, Kaze!” Corrin says breathlessly before turning to another Faceless. Kaze only makes a noise of affirmation and takes over covering her left side.

Corrin glances behind her shoulder. Mozume is closer than she thought. She stands on the edge of the grass--the land abruptly cuts off down to the water’s edge below them.

Corrin curses and moves her arm to swing starting from a low position. She times it wrong. The Faceless she’s aiming for knocks into the blade at an angle, causing her swing to go wide. Still, the Ganglari’s wicked curved tip flies upward into the creature’s jaw, at the edge of its mask. Kaze throws a shuriken at the wounded area to cover Corrin, and when it hits, the Faceless’s mask falls off.

The creature does, in fact, have a face.

The plane of its features is squished and flat, as if pushed in, or perhaps its head grew bulbous without regard for anything but its own bulk. Its nose is pinched, and its small eyes gleam a yellow-red under a T-shaped piece of metal that must be used in part to connect its face to the mask. A hide of green leather stretches from its ears down around its chin, concealing its mouth, but pressed so tightly into its face that she can see its teeth.

Corrin freezes in terror, and the creature winds its fist back and delivers a hard punch to her. The breath leaves her body, and she’s sent spinning, faster than she can comprehend. She hears something, but she can’t make sense of it. She can’t make sense of where the sky begins and the ground ends. 

She crashes into something hard, and then she rolls, feels the ground leave her, and panic seizes her as she falls.

The water isn’t cold, but she didn’t expect it, and it shocks her as it pushes hard against her.  It rushes into her mouth before she can close her lips, and she struggles not to breathe it in. She flails, searching for the surface, but she can’t see and she can’t swim--

A strong hand grabs her arm, interrupting her panicked thoughts, and another pulls around her waist, and she’s pulled upward. Her head breaks the surface, and she coughs out the water that made it’s way into her lungs. She coughs and coughs as she’s pulled to shore; her throat aches, her chest burns, and her ribs pang sharply.

“Corrin-sama?!” Kaze’s voice finally reaches her ears. Her vision is hazy and dark but she can make out his hair as he lays her on the bank. “Are you okay?”

She nods. “Mozu--?” She coughs again.

“I-I’m here.” Mozume is on her other side. She holds onto Corrin’s arm with her own shaking hand. “Breathe.”

It takes minutes, but finally, Corrin’s body steadies, and her breathing evens out. She feels an itch in her throat and it threatens to break out into another coughing fit. Her mind’s eye flashes with the memory of the Faceless’s face, and she shudders.  _ Just what are those things? _

“We have to go back,” she croaks, moving to sit up. A sharp pain shoots from her ribs again, and she hisses, moving a hand to the injury. Her armor is flexible, but she can feel an indent, and the skin beneath is tender when she pushes against it.

Kaze grabs her by the shoulder. “You are waiting until the battle is over so you can see a healer.”

“But they’re still fighting!”

He shakes his head, not budging an inch. “You’re in no condition to fight.”

“But--”

“P-please, Corrin-sama,” Mozume says, and for the first time since seeing her again, Corrin takes a moment to actually look at her. Her hair has fallen out of its pigtails, and it clings soaking wet to her pale face and neck. There is still watery blood stained on her clothes. Mozume shakes her head, and then she’s crying. “P-please don’t die…!”

“Mozume…” Corrin leans forward and takes her hand, but Mozume doesn’t look up. She only sobs and mumbles out  _ kaa-san  _ over and over again. Corrin looks to Kaze for help, but he just shakes his head, his hair dripping water down his face.

* * *

 

When Mozume calms down, they head back, Kaze supporting Corrin with a hand looped around her waist while he holds her arm around his shoulders. If Corrin weren’t so shaken and thankful for his warmth, she would feel more guilty for how her clothes soak his. Mozume is still shaken, but she clears the path ahead of them. Corrin belatedly notices that the girl lost her spear, most likely in the river.

“Thank you for saving me,” Corrin murmurs to Kaze. She’s not used to being around upset people, save for Felicia after one of her blunders, but this doesn’t feel the same as that; so, she leaves Mozume alone for the moment.

“Mozume helped,” Kaze says, just as quiet. “She jumped in right behind me.”

“All the same, thank you.” Corrin hides a grimace as her ribs protest at her movement. “I would have drowned if not for the two of you.”

“It is my duty to keep you safe. I do not require your gratitude.”

The way he says it isn’t rude; rather, the words are heavy off his lips. Corrin looks to him, but he is focused on the path ahead, his eyes betraying nothing.

“ _ Tomete kudasai _ ,” he says suddenly, and Mozume stops, looking back. Kaze is tensed, listening, but then he relaxes and a smile comes to his face. “My apologies. I heard shouting, but I think they aren’t fighting anymore; rather, Corrin-sama, they’re looking for you.”

She smiles. “Good. The sooner I see Sakura, the better.” But then, her heart drops when she looks at Mozume. “...Maybe you should stay back? From… From there, I mean.”

Mozume shakes her head. “I… want to see, and to…” She looks to Kaze and says something in Hoshidan, syllables that Corrin can’t catch. 

“She wants to perform funeral rites,” Kaze says.

Corrin’s eyes trail to the ground, remembering the children running through the village and the kind faces of their parents and grandparents. “...All right.”

It only takes them a little longer to make it to the fringe of the fields. Kagero sees them first and appears seemingly from nowhere; she takes Corrin’s other arm and helps Kaze lead her into a sort of makeshift base of operations, where Azama and Sakura are tending to Hinata and Setsuna. Corrin can’t quite make out who’s in the village and fields, but she can tell that they’re gathering the bodies of the dead. Wordlessly, trembling, Mozume goes to help with the process.

“She should be resting,” Kagero says quietly, watching Mozume go. “She might be in shock.”

“She might regret it if she doesn’t help,” Kaze replies. Before they can continue, Sakura looks up at them and gasps.

“N-Nee-sama!” she says, hurrying to her feet. She points to a spot on the ground. “Lay her here.”

Kaze and Kagero help Corrin to lay down, while Kaze explains what happened. Sakura asks Corrin where she where she is hurt, and then uses her festal to heal her. Corrin can feel her ribs stitching back together; she grimaces, but then the calming, restorative power fully washes over her, and her chest and throat no longer hurt when she breathes. Sakura even heals a cut on her cheek that she hadn’t realized was there.

“Y-you need your rest,” Sakura says before running a hand along the fabric underneath Corrin’s armor. “And a c-change of c-clothes.”

“I’m fine,” Corrin protests, sitting up, but Sakura shakes her head.

“I’ve healed t-the injuries, but you n-need to rest. Y-you don’t realize h-h-how exhausted you are from this.” She stands. “I-I have blankets, b-but not o-other clothes--those are in the convoy. K-Kagero-san, will you help me?”

Kaze disappears to alert the others that Corrin is safe, and Kagero comes with Sakura and Corrin. Corrin grimaces as they walk--she’s no longer in pain, but her limbs are sore, and she can only imagine how much worse she’ll feel tomorrow when it all sets in. 

Sakura gets a large blanket from her saddlebag, and Kagero holds it up for privacy while Sakura helps Corrin out of her clothes. Sakura takes a look at Corrin’s ribs again, but other than a lingering tenderness, Corrin is fine. Sakura takes Corrin’s wet clothes and Corrin takes the blanket to wrap around herself; it covers her whole body, nearly trailing onto the ground. Already she feels much warmer, and suddenly exhausted.

Kagero excuses herself, and Sakura leads Corrin back to sit on the ground. Setsuna, Hinata, and even Azama have already left. Sakura sits beside her and fidgets.

“I’m g-glad you’re okay.”

Corrin smiles, her eyes half-closed. “Thank you for worrying about me, Sakura. And healing me.”

“It w-was no p-problem.”

On impulse, Corrin reaches out her hand and wraps her fingers around Sakura’s. The girl tenses, but relaxes a few moments later. Corrin smiles and closes her eyes.

* * *

 

Corrin didn't realize when she dozed off. Sakura gently shakes her awake, saying that her clothes are dry, and that it's almost time to start the funeral pyre.

Corrin changes back into her armor, noting that the dent in it is gone with minimal evidence that it was ever there. She walks into the field, where the rest of the party is starting to gather. Kamui turns when she approaches and gives her a hug so tight she feels like she can't breathe again.

“Don't run off like that again!” he snaps, but not loud enough to be heard by the others. Not to mention he's half speaking into her shoulder. “I couldn't follow through all the Faceless, and I--I couldn’t leave Azura. I was worried about you.”

“...Sorry,” she says, not really sure what else to say. She returns the hug. “Mozume was out there. And Kaze was there with me.”

He pulls away, smiling. “I heard. I'm glad.” He looks back toward the gathering. “Come on, it's starting soon.” 

The bodies are gathered together in amongst a pile of logs and tinder. It's huge, and exudes sadness and tragedy. Corrin doesn't want to look too closely for fear of seeing a gruesome image she could never forget, so she averts her eyes from the sight as much as she can.

Azama comes forward as the dusk starts to gather in the sky, and he speaks. It's in solemn Hoshidan, and the people around her all put their hands together. Corrin does the same, lowering her head. Everyone is quiet, aside from Mozume. She's crying. 

When Azama is finished with the prayer, Ryoma comes forward with a lit torch. He speaks quietly to Mozume, and she takes it from him before setting the funeral pyre aflame.

After a while, the soldiers start to thin out, moving to where the convoy parked their horses so they can set up camp. It's become too dark out to go anywhere else.

Mozume stays by the pyre, sitting on her knees. Corrin goes to sit beside her. 

They’re silent for a long time. Corrin doesn’t know what to say, but a voice inside her is telling her not to move, not to leave Mozume alone.

“…I don’t know what to do,” Mozume says a long while later, her voice quiet and rasping.

Corrin glances at her. Then, she says: “Do you have other family?”

“No. It was me and  _ kaa-san _ .” Mozume shakes her head. Her hair is still matted from the water, and Corrin wonders if she even tried to dry her clothes in the sun. Probably not.

Corrin doesn’t think before she reaches out and takes Mozume’s hand. The girl finally looks up, her vacant brown eyes starting to focus on Corrin.

The princess squeezes her hand. “You can come with us.”

Mozume stares at her, eyes wide with surprise. Then, when the words have sunk in, she asks: “…I can?”

“Yes, of course.” Corrin does her best to smile. “You’ll have to work, and you’ll have to travel with us for a little while now—but I’m sure with the right training, you can find a job in the palace. I’ll ask Ryoma about it.”

Mozume is quiet for a long moment. “Can I…can I stay with you?”

Corrin blinks, and she thinks about how much she wanted to return to Nohr, to her siblings and retainers. She misses her siblings so much her heart aches, but at the same time, she can feel her blood start to boil, heated by the flames of the funeral pyre.

Memories of her recent dreams come to the forefront of her mind: Xander, holding out his hand to her, and then Xander, raising his sword against her. Her brother--perhaps Camilla and Leo as well--might know what’s going on. They might know what the Faceless are and what their use is. They might know about these attacks going on even when Hoshido isn’t encroaching on their territory. 

_ One way or another, I have to figure these things out,  _ she thinks.  _ If they knew where I really came from, and why they’re going along with this.... this outrageous fighting. What is it all for? What could possibly justify this? _

“...Corrin-sama?”

Mozume’s voice brings her back to the present, and Corrin shakes her head slightly to rid herself of her thoughts.

“You’re free to make your own choices, Mozume,” Corrin says at last. “…You can stay with me, if you want. But please understand…you don’t have to stay with me forever.”

Mozume nods, and for the first time, Corrin sees a spark appear in her eyes. “I understand, Corrin-sama.  _ Ari… Arigatou gozaimasu _ .”

“You’re welcome,” Corrin says quietly back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention the last chapter, but this story is now beta'd by two lovely people, @theoriginalobsessed and @the-creative-vault (these are their tumblr urls)! Thanks so very much you guys for taking my crappy drafts and telling me where I'm going wrong, I really need it right now, lol.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Azura remembers her past with Kamui.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Amazing, how I tend to write more when finals are approaching.
> 
> This is half of Azura's backstory with Kamui (hence the use of the past tense in the first part of the chapter). The next half will come in a future chapter.

Thirteen Years Ago

Azura stood poised on the lakeside, her small, thin arms held above her head. She took a breath and, remembering her mother’s lessons, took deliberate steps across the wet sand. Her legs crossed in front of each other, her hands weaving graceful lines through the air.

> _ imisanakikeganonawot _ _   
>  _ _ orokokumorodametemotowikot _ _   
>  _ _ uaerufetotetiarahowimay _ _   
>  _ _ odihciuomami _ _   
>  _ _   
>  _ _ ikemazasanoyuosasumezak _ _   
>  _ _ otegakomoukuyirutsuinuzimadat _ _   
>  _ _ usawurufimimeokonotihonak _ _   
>  _ _ uremishikadesoyiruketedikasibuy _ _   
>  _ _   
>  _ _ etitomikuuyami _ _   
>  _ _ uamarosawasabutikotemisamiorokok _ _   
>  _ _ uamaros _ _   
>  _ __ uamaros

As the last notes left her lips, Azura felt something stir in her chest. She didn’t know the meaning of the lyrics--they weren’t Common or Nohrian words, nor were they Hoshidan even though they had been transcribed with the syllabary--but it somehow reminded her of her mother’s song. Perhaps it was the way she sang it, with a slow and mesmerizing tune that made her think of lighting a candle on a moonless night.

Azura closed her eyes and let out a breath, relaxing her body. She turned from the lake, but a flash of movement caught her eye--she made out Kamui’s silvery hair just before he ducked out of sight.

She felt her skin burn with embarrassment. Wrapping her arms around herself, Azura hurried with stiff footsteps back toward the castle. She didn’t stop, nor look or speak to anyone she passed.

Azura had no retainers to call her own, being a hostage, and thus no one came to check on her for quite awhile. She stewed in her thoughts while lying on her futon, cursing Kamui silently. She hated being around him. He was impulsive, wild, and prone to outbursts, and this wasn’t the first time she had caught him watching her.

_ I want Mommy,  _ she thought, lonely and frustrated tears sliding down her temples and into her hair.  _ I want to go home, _ she thought, even though she knew such a thing could never happen.

Finally, when the light coming into her room had dimmed, she heard footsteps outside her sliding door. “Azura?” Mikoto called. “May I come in?”

The door slid open, and Mikoto walked inside, carrying a tray of food. She closed the door with her foot before placing the tray on the low table. She knelt at the foot of the futon. Azura didn’t look at her.

“When you didn’t show up for dinner, I was worried,” the queen began softly. “Kamui was quite upset, too.”

Azura rolled onto her side and clutched at her blanket.

“He told me why you might be angry,” Mikoto continued. “And I sent him to his room to think about what he did. He had no business spying on you like that.”

“Then he shouldn’t have done it,” Azura said, and hiccupped. She curled her legs up against her chest and clamped her lips shut.

She heard Mikoto shift, and a moment later, the woman was stroking her hair. Azura tensed, but the motion calmed her, and she could almost imagine that her mother were there instead. A breath left her lips, and she relaxed.

“While it’s no excuse for what he did, I believe Kamui just wants to get to know you better. Especially…” She trailed off, but her unsaid words were clear: With each day that passed, it became more and more apparent that Azura would not be going back to Nohr. With how terrifying King Garon’s court had been, Azura was happy to not go back, but she was always put off with the Hoshidans’ polite coldness, and how Hinoka and Kamui and Takumi all cried for their lost Kamiko.

Mikoto finally spoke: “I think it would be best for you to talk to him.”

Azura tightened up again. “I don’t like him.”

“...I’m not asking you to,” Mikoto said, and she sounded so much quieter than before. “I’m asking you to try to reach an understanding with him. I’m sure it will work toward solving the problem you two have.”

* * *

 

Azura had no desire to speak to Kamui, and ignored him whenever possible. At dinner she would sit far away from him and avoid his gaze--everyone’s gaze, really. She spent her time in the library, learning from her new tutors and trying to figure out the best tune for the ancient lyrics she had found. She tried to only go outside to practice her dancing and singing when she knew Kamui would be busy with his own lessons, and she would go to more random and secluded spots in hopes she wouldn’t be found.

What she couldn’t do, however, was avoid Kamui at meals.

In the first place, dinners never felt  _ comfortable _ . Hinoka was broody, Kamui was unpredictable, and while the infant Sakura was usually not present, Takumi always was, and he was set off by even the slightest negative change in atmosphere--which was why it helped that Ryoma at least was steadfast. Mikoto always tried to make sure Azura was included in conversation when times were more normal, but she found it still hard to speak in front of all the other children.

Azura tended to keep her eyes on her plate while she ate, so she didn’t see exactly what caused Kamui’s outburst that night--but one moment it was quiet, and the next, Kamui was screaming.

The high-pitched screech caused Azura to drop her chopsticks as her head snapped up. Kamui sat bent forward, face hidden by his arms and his hands tangled in his hair. His body shook, and he screamed something incomprehensible. 

Without warning, Kamui turned toward the door, scrabbling on his hands and feet with his nails scraping the floor. Before he could get far, Reina darted from her post and scooped him up in her arms.

“Let me  _ go _ !” he screamed, voice hoarse. “I have to go find Kamiko!” He struggled, but the young woman was too strong. He thrashed about, then suddenly bit down on Reina’s arm.

Azura shrunk backward, her eyes widening at the spurt of blood. But Reina was barely phased, holding on tightly to Kamui while Mikoto hurried over. She took hold of Kamui and immediately sat on the floor, rocking back and forth, singing a wordless tune.

Kamui screamed again, and it hurt Azura’s ears, but she was too frightened to move. Then he cried and wrapped his arms around his mother, burying his face in her shoulder. Mikoto stroked his hair, and slowly his cries became softer. All throughout this, Mikoto continued to sing to him quietly, lowering her voice as his cries decreased in volume.

The melody finally reached Azura, and it transported her back to when she was much smaller, when her own mother would hold her and sing to her. When Arete would take her to Valla and teach her the ballad for Anankos.

Azura stood immediately. Mikoto looked up and paused in her singing--Kamui twitched in his sleep. Azura averted her eyes, but hurried from the room all the same.

She looked back just once at Kamui’s sleeping face. There were wet trails on his cheeks.

* * *

 

> _...Umaros _
> 
> _ umaros _

Azura took a breath, and then sat on the dock. She let her toes dangle in the water, creating small ripples on the surface. Hot tears ran down her cheeks.

“...A-Azura?”

She stiffened and quickly wiped the water from her face. She turned her head to see Kamui standing on the dock, close to the shore. His shoulders were hunched, and he looked small, meek even.

“I-I…” He scuffed his bare foot on the wood. “I...wanna say sorry… F-for listening to you, I mean. And…” He looked down. “...I scare you too, don’t I? I’m sorry.”

Azura didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t remember the last time he had actually talked to her, much less apologized for anything. But he seemed genuine, and the memory of how he had curled up crying in Mikoto’s arms as she sang to him returned to her mind.

“...I’ll forgive you, so long as you don’t do it again,” Azura said quietly, and Kamui’s head snapped up, his eyebrows raised with surprise.

“R-really?” he asked, and when she nodded slowly, his eyes lit up with happiness. Without warning, he hurried to her side and plopped down beside her.

Azura flinched and shrunk away a little, and he froze. “O-oh, sorry.” He scooted away, toward the left. “...Is it okay if I sit with you?”

“...Yes,” she said at last, looking down at her lap. She was barely audible. “Just… c-can you ask first, next time?”

“Of course,” Kamui said, nodding vehemently. 

Azura looked away, unsure of what to do next. Kamui seemed to catch onto the awkwardness of the situation and grew quiet himself. He dangled his feet down toward the water, but his toes didn’t yet reach the surface. He swung his leg a little, trying to reach it, and he bit his lip.

“Azura?”

“Yes?”

“I… I didn’t mean to listen in on you, I swear… but what was that song you were singing just now?”

“I’m not sure where it comes from,” she admitted. “I think it’s called a  _ galdr _ … I found it in the library. I’ve been trying to find a good tune, but I don’t know what the lyrics mean, so it’s hard to know when to stress a word.”

“I like your other song better,” Kamui blurted.

He paused.

“I-I mean,” he stammed, looking at his lap. His ears were turning red. “T-this one is nice and all, it’s very pretty, but--the other one reminds me of Haha-ue’s lullabies.”

“Oh.” She played with the fabric of her dress. 

“...You don’t sing it anymore, do you?” Kamui asked.

Azura felt a lump form in her throat. “Have you been listening to me?”

“I-I…” Kamui bit his lip again and pulled his knees up to his chest. “I’ve been trying not to,” he mumbled. “But you sound so nice.”

Her eyes burned with unshed tears. She stood and turned to leave, and Kamui immediately scrambled to his feet. 

“W-wait!” he called.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she snapped, hugging herself and looking at the ground as she walked with stiff steps. “Please leave me alone.”

* * *

 

Azura sat in the library, poring over the ancient song. Her lessons in the Hoshidan language had been progressing as well as it could for a child, given the difficult writing system, but she could only make out the vaguest of words in the notes and she was unsure about whether or not they were correct. 

As she sat, she didn’t notice the light filtering through the windows and paper screens start to dim until she could barely see the letters on the page. She blinked rapidly, realizing how strained her eyes felt. Her shoulders were stiff, and she realized she couldn’t feel her legs after sitting so long on the floor.

Instead of standing, however, Azura sat for awhile, staring blankly at the old, thin book. The flint for the lantern was on the table, but she didn’t move to grab it.

Finally, Azura roused from her trance, but only when the light of another lantern caught her attention. She looked up, and after her eyes adjusted to the illumination, she recognized that the person standing there was Mikoto.

Azura expected the woman to scold her for skipping dinner, or tell her to go to bed, but instead, Mikoto knelt beside her and set her lantern on the table.

“What are you reading?” she asked, smiling.

“A song.” Azura coughed, her voice hoarse from lack of use.

“May I look?”

When Azura nodded, Mikoto picked up the book and peered at it. Her lips moved silently, tracing the sounds. Then she nodded as she read the notes. 

“I’m impressed you can read the lyrics,” she said warmly. “Your lessons must be going well. But the notes are ages old; even I have trouble reading them. Do you know what they say?”

Azura shook her head. “No… Only small things. Like,” she said, pointing at one of the kanji, “I think this means ‘dragon.’”

Mikoto blinked, as if it took her the slightest moment to process what was said. But the pause was so small that Azura wondered whether or not it had actually happened.

“Even that much is impressive,” the queen said. She pointed out the character that Azura had noted, which lay at the top of the page. “It does mean ‘dragon,’ but paired with this kanji, it means the ‘Dragon’s Gate.’”

Azura frowned. “The Dragon’s Gate?”

“It’s an old gate from the time of the ancient dragons. The legends say that the dragons could use their power to allow humans to travel to other lands for a short while. This description says that this song comes from a land called… Te-ri-u-su.” She said the last word slowly, like it was the first time she was ever reading it. “It was sung by the last of a shapeshifting race called the Herons. The song foretells the coming of darkness and bloodshed, and the hope that lies at the end of the struggle, in the water and the wind.”

Her finger reached the end of the paragraph. “There’s no translation or anything else, for that matter. That’s it.” 

“Ah.” Azura had been hoping for a direct translation, to truly know what words she’d been singing. All the same, she bowed her head. “Thank you, Mikoto-sama.”

“Not at all, dear,” Mikoto said. “I would love to hear you sing this song someday. I’m sure it would be beautiful to hear.”

Azura felt her heart warm up, even as embarrassment filled her and she looked away. “Thank you.”

“Now then, Azura, do you mind if I ask something of you?”

The girl looked back, blinking. “What is it?”

“I was hoping that you would take this for the time being.” Mikoto reached into her kimono sleeve and pulled out a bluish, sparkling crystal, about as big as Azura’s small fist. 

Azura peered closer, something in her heart drawing her closer to the object. Slowly, tentatively, she reached out and took it in her hand. It felt cool, like water on a hot day.

“This is called a dragonstone,” Mikoto explained. She closed Azura’s fingers around it. “It’s supposed to hold incredible power, but only for certain people. I was hoping you could give it to someone for me, when the time is right.”

Azura frowned. She looked back up at the queen. “But why me?” She was just a child, and a hostage for that matter--why would the queen of Hoshido want her to do  _ anything  _ for her as a favor?

Mikoto shook her head. “I don’t think it would have the same effect if it came from me, and I’d rather keep this quiet. You’ll know the time when it comes. Will you do this for me?”

Azura paused, thinking, but couldn’t think of any reason to say no, especially after Mikoto had only ever been kind to her. So, she nodded. “...Okay.”

* * *

 

Now

When Azura’s face breaks the surface of the water, she’s greeted by the sight of stars, and the cool night air.

Once again, she went to Valla to look for another dragonstone. And once again, she returned to Hoshido empty-handed.

_ What am I expecting to find? _ she thinks as her bare feet find the muddy bottom of the pond.  _ To turn over a rock and find it there? If there are any others out there, they must be guarded treasures held in Anankos’s grasp, if he’s even the one to have them…. _

Mikoto was the one to give her the dragonstone to pass along to Kamui without much explanation about where the item came from. Even when she questioned Mikoto about it again once Corrin had returned to Hoshido, the queen said that she had no others, but that perhaps Azura herself could find them.

Mikoto never told Azura whether or not she knew about the existence of Valla, nor the curse, but after that moment, Azura holds no doubt in her mind that Mikoto knows. How can she not, when Mikoto so cleverly alluded to the ability to travel to and from Valla, an ability only Azura is supposed to have?

Azura sighs and dismisses the thoughts from her mind for the time being. She calls upon the magic in her blood and motions downwards with her hands, pulling the excess water from her hair and clothes. Even without it weighing her down anymore, she feels heavy and tired. 

She heads back to her tent, her footsteps silent against the ground. She passes Corrin’s tent and briefly wonders how the girl is faring, especially now that she’s taken Mozume under her wing, but then she hears footsteps.

By the light of the moon she can see Kamui stumbling out of the woods, rubbing at an eye with his fist. Azura stops to watch him for a moment, mostly out of concern--he looks like he might topple over from sleepiness. 

Kamui looks up toward her, and a lopsided smile falls on his face. “Azura,” he calls softly as he makes his way over to her. His eyes are hazy from sleep. “Hello.”

The corners of Azura’s lips turn upward, just slightly. “You should be in bed, Kamui.”

“Had to pee,” he mumbles, and she hides a laugh. She wonders if he thinks he’s dreaming.

He moves closer and picks out a few strands of her hair to run his fingers through. “You should, too.”

Her cheeks warm up. Gently, she puts her hand over his and stops him, but she doesn’t let go. “I’m going to bed now,” she says softly. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Kamui wraps his thumb around her fingers. “G’night, Azura,” he says with a yawn before letting go and wandering away. He stops.

“Your tent is right over there,” she says, pointing.

“Ah.” He yawns again. “Thanks, Azura, for always bein’ so nice.” Now his words are quire slurred. “An’ to Kamiko, too.”

He must be really tired to slip up on using Corrin’s preferred name. “Goodnight, Kamui,” she says with a finality, hoping he’ll get the hint.

“Night,” he calls before stumbling into his tent.

Azura smiles, more vibrantly now that she’s alone, and she returns to her own tent and secures the flaps behind her. As she changes into her nightgown, her exhaustion starts to catch up with her. She lays on her futon, and thoughts of Kamui and Corrin fill her head to the brim.

_ I can’t let them down, _ she thinks before falling asleep.


End file.
